Extending a content delivery network (CDN) into a mobile or wireline network

• US 20120096106A1
• Filed: 06/20/2011
• Published: 04/19/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Akamai Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Akamai Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Blumofe, Robert D., Kanitkar, Vinay, Walther, Dane S.
• Granted Patent: US 10,977,747 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/213
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/00 Information and communication technology [ICT] specially adapted for implementation of business processes of specific business sectors, e.g. utilities or tourism healthcare informatics G16H
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching

Abstract

A content delivery network (CDN) comprises a set of edge servers, and a domain name service (DNS) that is authoritative for content provider domains served by the CDN. The CDN is extended into one or more mobile or wireline networks that cannot or do not otherwise support fully-managed CDN edge servers. In particular, an “Extender” is deployed in the mobile or wireline network, preferably as a passive web caching proxy that is beyond the edge of the CDN but that serves CDN-provisioned content under the control of the CDN. The Extender may also be used to transparently cache and serve non-CDN content. An information channel is established between the Extender and the CDN to facilitate the Extender functionality.

Claims

1. Apparatus, comprising:

a processor;

a cache;

computer memory holding computer program instructions executed by the processor to perform a method, the method comprising;

receiving a request for content;

determining whether the content is of a first type or a second type, the first type being content that is adapted to be delivered over a content delivery network (CDN) distinct from the apparatus, the second type being distinct from the first type;

if the content is of a first type and is located in the cache, receiving a cache handing directive from the CDN;

applying the cache handling directive received from the CDN and serving the content in accordance therewith; and

if the content is of the second type, transparently caching and serving the content in response to the request.

2. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the step of receiving a cache handling directive comprises the following sub-steps:

receiving information identifying an edge resource in the CDN;

directing a validation request to the identified edge resource; and

receiving the cache handling directive in response to the validation request, the cache handling directive having been determined at the edge resource by applying customer-specific configuration data.

3. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the cache is partitioned into first and second portions, the first portion for caching content of the first type, and the second portion for caching content of the second type.

4. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the step of determining whether the content is of a first type compares a domain associated with the request with a list of CDN edge traffic domains.

5. The apparatus as described in claim 4 wherein the domain is a top level domain (TLD) of a canonical name (CNAME).

6. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the cache handling directive received from the CDN is one of:

a time-to-live (TTL) expiration time, a “

no-store”

directive, and data indicating if the content should be purged from the cache.

7. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the cache communicates with the CDN synchronously or asynchronously to receive the cache handling directive from the CDN.

8. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the method further includes authenticating the cache to the CDN.

9. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the method further includes providing data to the CDN.

10. The apparatus as described in claim 9 wherein the data identifies data of the first type served from the cache, and data of the second type served from the cache.

11. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the cache handling directive includes a cache key uniquely associated with a particular domain associated with a CDN customer.

12. A content delivery method carried out in association with a third party content delivery network (CDN), the CDN comprising a set of edge servers, and a DNS authoritative from one or more content provider domains served by the CDN, the method comprising:

deploying a cache in a network distinct from the CDN;

establishing an information channel between the cache and at least one edge server; and

using the information channel to control how content associated with the content provider domains is served from the cache.

13. The method as described in claim 12 wherein the network is a mobile network.

14. The method as described in claim 12 wherein the network is a wireline network.

15. The method as described in claim 12 further including transparently caching and serving from the cache content associated with domains other than the content provider domains.

16. The method as described in claim 12 wherein the cache extends the content delivery network into the network.