METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRE-FETCHING REMOTE CONTENT BASED ON STATIC AND DYNAMIC RECOMMENDATIONS

• US 20150134781A1
• Filed: 11/13/2013
• Published: 05/14/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Palo Alto Research Center, Inc. (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Silberstein, Rebecca Lynn Braynard, Plass, Michael F., Meike, Roger C.
• Granted Patent: US 10,129,365 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/70 of video data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5683 Storage of data provided by user terminals, i.e. reverse caching

Abstract

A data-caching system facilitates pre-loading a cache with content objects that are likely to be of interest to a client device, as determined based on their correlation to other content objects served to the client device. During operation, the system can receive an interest for a content object, and can determine whether the local network device can satisfy the interest. If so, the system generates a content-object recommendation that indicates other content objects that are correlated with the received interest, for example, by computing correlation values between the received interest and a plurality of historical interests. The system then provides the content recommendation to a remote network device from which the interest originated, such that the content recommendation indicates the correlated content objects to pre-load into a cache.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving, by a network device, an interest for a content object;

determining that the local network device satisfies the interest;

determining one or more other content objects correlated with the received interest; and

generating a content recommendation that indicates the one or more correlated content objects, and facilitates pre-populating a cache with the correlated content objects.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the interest corresponds to data presented by an interactive menu or catalogue, and wherein the content recommendation indicates a content object obtainable by following a link or menu item of the interactive menu or catalogue.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing the content recommendation to a remote network device from which the interest originated.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein providing the content recommendation involves:

obtaining the content object that satisfies the received interest;

encapsulating the content recommendation with the obtained content object to generate a recommendation-carrying content object; and

sending the recommendation-carrying content object to an interface associated with the interest to satisfy the interest.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein providing the content recommendation to the remote network device involves:

receiving a recommendation-requesting interest for the content recommendation corresponding to the content item; and

sending the content recommendation to an interface associated with the interest to satisfy the recommendation-requesting interest.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising periodically analyzing historical interests, corresponding to a set of content objects requested by a plurality of client devices, to compute a correlation value between pairs of content objects in the set.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein determining the one or more other content objects correlated with the received interest involves:

selecting, from the set of content objects, a subset of content objects which have a correlation value greater than or equal to a threshold correlation value.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the local network device satisfies the interest involves one or more of:

determining that the local network device stores the content object that satisfies the interest; and

determining that the local network device is along a network path to a remote network device that satisfies the interest.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform a method, the method comprising:

receiving an interest for a content object;

determining that the local computer satisfies the interest;

determining one or more other content objects correlated with the received interest; and

generating a content recommendation that indicates the one or more correlated content objects, and facilitates pre-populating a cache with the correlated content objects.

10. The storage medium of claim 9, wherein the interest corresponds to data presented by an interactive menu or catalogue, and wherein the content recommendation indicates a content object obtainable by following a link or menu item of the interactive menu or catalogue.

11. The storage medium of claim 9, further comprising providing the content recommendation to a remote network device from which the interest originated.

12. The storage medium of claim 11, wherein providing the content recommendation involves:

obtaining the content object that satisfies the received interest;

encapsulating the content recommendation with the obtained content object to generate a recommendation-carrying content object; and

sending the recommendation-carrying content object to an interface associated with the interest to satisfy the interest.

13. The storage medium of claim 11, wherein providing the content recommendation to the remote network device involves:

receiving a recommendation-requesting interest for the content recommendation corresponding to the content item; and

sending the content recommendation to an interface associated with the interest to satisfy the recommendation-requesting interest.

14. The storage medium of claim 9, further comprising periodically analyzing historical interests, corresponding to a set of content objects requested by a plurality of client devices, to compute a correlation value between pairs of content objects in the set.

15. The storage medium of claim 14, wherein determining the one or more other content objects correlated with the received interest involves:

selecting, from the set of content objects, a subset of content objects which have a correlation value greater than or equal to a threshold correlation value.

16. The storage medium of claim 9, wherein determining that the local computer satisfies the interest involves one or more of:

determining that the local computer stores the content object that satisfies the interest; and

determining that the local computer is along a network path to a remote network device that satisfies the interest.

17. A computer-implemented method comprising:

disseminating, by a computing device, a first interest for a first content object;

obtaining a content recommendation indicating at least a second content object correlated with the first content object;

sending a second interest for the second content object; and

responsive to receiving the second content object that satisfies the interest, storing or caching the second content object in a local repository or content cache.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the first interest corresponds to data presented by an interactive menu or catalogue, and wherein the content recommendation indicates a content object obtainable by following a link or menu item of the interactive menu or catalogue.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein obtaining the content recommendation involves reading the content recommendation from the first content object.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the first content object is associated with a data collection, and wherein obtaining the content recommendation involves:

responsive to receiving the first content object, identifying a naming convention associated with a data collection;

deriving, from the first content object'"'"'s name, names for one or more other content objects in the data collection;

generating the content recommendation to indicate one or more derived names, wherein the content recommendation facilitates obtaining and caching one or more content objects in the data collection.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the naming convention includes one or more of:

a sequence number associated with a data stream;

a version number associated with a file; and

a page number associated with an electronic document.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein obtaining the content recommendation involves:

disseminating an interest for a recommendation indicating other content objects correlated with the first content object; and

receiving the content recommendation from a remote network device which satisfies the first interest for the first content object.

23. An apparatus, comprising:

a communication module to disseminate a first interest for a first content object;

a recommendation-processing module to obtain a content recommendation indicating at least a second content object correlated with the first content object; and

a data-caching module to cache data corresponding to one or more interests;

wherein the communication module is further configured to send a second interest for the second content object; and

wherein the data-caching module is further configured to store or cache the second content object in a local repository or content cache, responsive to the communication module receiving the second content object that satisfies the interest.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein while obtaining the content recommendation, the recommendation-processing module is further configured to read the content recommendation from the first content object.

25. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein while obtaining the content recommendation, the recommendation-processing module is further configured to:

disseminate an interest for a recommendation indicating other content objects correlated with the first content object; and

receive the content recommendation from a remote network device which satisfies the first interest for the first content object.