LOCAL CACHING DEVICE, SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING CONTENT CACHING SERVICE

• US 20130326133A1
• Filed: 06/03/2013
• Published: 12/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SK Telecom Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: SK Telecom Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: LEE, Jong Min, LEE, Kyung Jun, SHIM, Young Jae, KWON, A Rum
• Granted Patent: US 9,390,200 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/108
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0875 with dedicated cache, e.g. instruction or stack
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90339 by using parallel associative memories or content-addressable memories
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5682 Policies or rules for updating, deleting or replacing the stored data

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a local caching device, system and method for providing a content caching service. The local caching device receives, from a content provider, at least one part of content requested by a user terminal and then, based on the received part of the requested content, determines whether the requested content is stored in a storage unit. If the requested content is stored, the local caching device registers flow information of the requested content in the storage unit. When content having the same flow information as the registered flow information is requested, the local caching device determines based on content address information whether the requested content is stored.

Claims

1. A local caching device, comprising:

a storage unit configured to store some or all contents provided from at least one content provider to at least one user terminal;

a communication interface configured to transmit and receive data between the at least one content provider and the at least one user terminal; and

a controller configured to

receive, from the content provider, content requested by the user terminal,

register flow information of the requested content if the storage unit stores content which is at least partially identical to the received content, and

determine whether the requested content is stored in the storage unit when content having the same flow information as the registered flow information is requested.

2. The local caching device of claim 1, wherein the storage unit comprises at least one of

a flow information table configured to store the registered flow information, or

a content address management table configured to store content identification information and content address information regarding each of contents in the storage unit.

3. The local caching device of claim 2, wherein the flow information table includes at least one of

source address information indicating a source of content of a cache hit, and

destination address information indicating a destination of content of the cache hit.

4. The local caching device of claim 2, wherein

the controller is configured to generate the content identification information from at least one part of each of the contents stored in the storage unit, and

the content address management table includes one or more content address information matched with the content identification information.

5. The local caching device of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to manage

content identification information created using at least one part of each of contents stored in the storage unit, and

content address information matched with the content identification information.

6. The local caching device of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to

determine whether the received content is at least one part of adapted type content, and

register flow information of the received content in a flow information table of the storage unit if the received content is the at least one part of adapted type content.

7. The local caching device of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to register the flow information of the received content in a flow information table of the storage unit if the content is requested more than a given number of times and stored in the storage unit.

8. The local caching device of claim 5, wherein the content identification information includes at least one of

prefix information having a predetermined length,

a hash value obtained by processing the prefix information using a predetermined hash function, and

metadata of the received content.

9. The local caching device of claim 1, wherein if content at least partially identical to the received content or content corresponding to the content address information is not stored in the storage unit, the controller is further configured to

receive the requested content from the content provider,

transmit the received content to the user terminal, and

store the received content in the storage unit.

10. The local caching device of claim 1, wherein if content at least partially identical to the received content is stored in the storage unit, the controller is further configured to request the content provider to stop content transmission.

11. The local caching device of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to

extract flow information corresponding to the received content, and

store the extracted flow information as a flow of a cache hit in a flow information table of the storage unit.

12. The local caching device of claim 11, wherein the controller is further configured to count a cache hit or not of each flow, and register flow information of a flow of continuous cache hits more than a given number of times in the flow information table of the storage unit.

13. The local caching device of claim 1, wherein the controller further comprises

a request monitoring module configured to monitor some or all content request messages being transmitted from the at least one user terminal to the at least one content provider, and

a cache control module configured to store, in the storage unit, some or all contents being transmitted from the at least one content provider to the at least one user terminal.

14. A method of providing a content caching service, the method performed by a local caching device and comprising:

receiving, from a content provider, at least one part of content requested by a user terminal;

determining whether the requested content is stored in a storage unit of the local caching device, based on the received at least one part of the requested content;

registering flow information of the requested content in a flow information table of the storage unit if the requested content is stored in the storage unit; and

when content having the same flow information as the registered flow information is requested, determining whether the requested content is stored in the storage unit, based on content address information.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the registering of the flow information includes

if the content corresponding to the flow information is requested more than a given number of times and stored in the storage unit, registering the flow information in the flow information table of the storage unit.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the registering of the flow information includes

determining whether the received content is a part of adapted type content, and

registering the flow information of the requested content in the flow information table of the storage unit if the received content is a part of adapted type content.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

determining whether the requested content is stored in the storage unit, based on the content address information or at least one part of the received content; and

transmitting the stored content to the user terminal when the requested content is determined as stored in the storage unit.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

determining whether the requested content is stored in the storage unit, based on the content address information or at least one part of the received content;

when the requested content is determined as not stored in the storage unit,

receiving the requested content from the content provider; and

transmitting the received content to the user terminal while storing the received content in the storage unit.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

matching, for the stored content, content identification information created using at least one part of the received content and the content address information of the received content; and

storing the matched information in a content address management table of the storage unit.

20. A system of providing a content caching service, comprising:

a content provider configured to providing some or all contents; and

a local caching device configured to communicate with the content provider, the local caching device including;

a storage unit configured to store the provided some or all contents provided to at least one user terminal;

a communication interface configured to transmit and receive data between the at least one content provider and the at least one user terminal; and

a controller configured to

receive, from the content provider, content requested by the user terminal,

register flow information of the requested content if the storage unit stores content which is at least partially identical to the received content, and

determine whether the requested content is stored in the storage unit when content having the same flow information as the registered flow information is requested.