METHOD, APPARATUS AND SYSTEM FOR DETERMINING CONTENT ACQUISITION PATH AND PROCESSING REQUEST

• US 20160149810A1
• Filed: 01/29/2016
• Published: 05/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: LIU, Shucheng
• Granted Patent: US 10,103,986 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/6418 Hybrid transport
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/12 Shortest path evaluation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/124 using a combination of metrics
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/306 Route determination based on the nature of the carried application
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/742 Route cache; Operation thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/745 Address table lookup; Address filtering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context

Abstract

The present disclosure provide a method for determining a content acquisition path, a method for processing a content request and a corresponding apparatus and system. The method for determining the content acquisition path includes: receiving a request from a user, where the request is used for requesting an original content provider to provide a content, and the request carries a name of the content, a network address of the original content provider and a network address of the user; calculating at least two forwarding paths to the original content provider, and determining a content acquisition path according to link cost on each forwarding path and a cache hit rate of a network node on each forwarding path to the content; and sending the request to a next network node according to the content acquisition path, for enabling the next network node to forward or respond to the request.

Claims

1. A method for determining a content acquisition path, comprising:

receiving, by a first network node, a request from a user, wherein the request is used for requesting an original content provider to provide a content, and the request carries a name of the content, a network address of the original content provider and a network address of the user;

calculating at least two forwarding paths to the original content provider, and determining a content acquisition path according to link cost on each forwarding path and a cache hit rate of a network node on each forwarding path to the content; and

sending the request to a next network node according to the content acquisition path, for enabling the next network node to forward or respond to the request.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

acquiring the cache hit rate of the network node on the each forwarding path to the content;

the cache hit rate of the network node on the each forwarding path to the content is acquired in the following manners;

inquiring the cache hit rate of the network node on each forwarding path to the content in a cache hit rate information table stored locally, or inquiring a cache hit rate of a cache network node on each forwarding path to the content in the cache hit rate information table, wherein the cache network node is a network node responsible for caching the content;

or

during the inquiring process, if there is at least one network node of which a cache hit rate to the content could not be acquired by inquiring the cache hit rate information table, presetting the cache hit rate of the at least one network node to the content according to a whole hit rate condition of the at least one network node.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determining the content acquisition path according to the link cost on each forwarding path and the cache hit rate of the network node on each forwarding path to the content, comprises:

calculating path cost C=C_1,n of each forwarding path respectively, wherein,

C_i,n=Φ

_i+1R_i+1P_i,i+1+(1−

Φ

_i+1R_i+1)(P_i,i+1+C_i+1,n),(i<

n),

the n is a quantity of network nodes on a forwarding path calculated currently, when a (i+1)^th network node in n network nodes is responsible for caching the content, the Φ

_i+1=1, otherwise, the Φ

_i+1=0, the R_i+1 is a cache hit rate of the (i+1)^th network node to the content, the P_i,i+1 is link cost from a i^th network node to the (i+1)^th network node in the n network nodes, and the C_i,n is path cost from the i^th network node to a n^th network node in the n network nodes; and

selecting a forwarding path with a minimum path cost from the at least two forwarding paths as the content acquisition path.

4. The method according to claim 2, further comprising:

receiving a content data packet generated by a cache network node hitting the content or generated by the original content provider, wherein the content data packet carries hit rate information of all cache network nodes passed by the request to the content; and

extracting the hit rate information in the content data packet, and updating hit rate information of corresponding network nodes to the content stored locally.

5. A method for processing a request, comprising:

receiving, by a cache network node, a request from a user, wherein the request is used for requesting an original content provider to provide a content, the request carries a name of the content, a network address of the original content provider and a network address of the user, and the cache network node is a network node responsible for caching the content;

checking a local cache, if hitting the content, updating a hit rate of the local cache to the content, generating a content data packet, and sending the content data packet to the user as a response to the request, wherein the content data packet carries hit rate information of the cache network node to the content;

or,

checking a local cache, if not hitting the content, updating a hit rate of the local cache to the content, and sending the request to the original content provider after performing the following process on the request;

carrying hit rate information of the cache network node to the content in the request.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein in a condition that the cache network node hits the content, if the request further carries hit rate information of other cache network nodes to the content, the cache network node extracts the hit rate information and carries the hit rate information in the content data packet, wherein the other cache network nodes are nodes passed by the request before arriving at the cache network node.

7. The method according to claim 5, wherein in a condition that the cache network node does not hit the content, the sending the request to the original content provider after performing the following process on the request comprises:

determining, by the cache network node, a next hop according to content acquisition path information carried in the request;

or,

calculating, by the cache network node, at least two forwarding paths to the original content provider, determining a content acquisition path according to link cost on each forwarding path and a cache hit rate of a network node on each forwarding path to the content, and determining a next hop according to the determined content acquisition path.

8. The method according to claim 5, wherein in a condition that the cache network node does not hit the content, the method further comprises:

receiving, by the cache network node, a content data packet generated by a cache network node hitting the content or generated by the original content provider, wherein the content data packet carries hit rate information of all cache network nodes passed by the request to the content;

sending the content data packet to the user;

or,

extracting the hit rate information in the content data packet, updating hit rate information of corresponding network nodes to the content stored locally, and sending the content data packet to the user.

9. A network node for determining a content acquisition path, comprising:

a receiver, configured to receive a request from a user, wherein the request is used for requesting an original content provider to provide a content, and the request carries a name of the content, a network address of the original content provider and a network address of the user;

a processor, configured to calculate at least two forwarding paths to the original content provider, and determine a content acquisition path according to link cost on each forwarding path and a cache hit rate of a network node on each forwarding path to the content; and

a transmitter, configured to send the request to a next network node according to the content acquisition path, for enabling the next network node to forward or respond to the request.

10. The network node according to claim 9, the processor is further configured to acquire the cache hit rate of the network node on the each forwarding path to the content;

wherein the processor is configured to acquire the cache hit rate of the network node on the each forwarding path to the content in the following manner

inquiring the cache hit rate of the network node on each forwarding path to the content in a cache hit rate information table stored locally, or inquiring a cache hit rate of a cache network node on each forwarding path to the content in the cache hit rate information table, wherein the cache network node is a network node responsible for caching the content.

11. The network node according to claim 9, the processor is further configured to acquire the cache hit rate of the network node on the each forwarding path to the content;

wherein the processor is configured to acquire the cache hit rate of the network node on the each forwarding path to the content in the following manner

during the inquiring process, if there is at least one network node of which a cache hit rate to the content could not be acquired by inquiring the cache hit rate information table, presetting the cache hit rate of the at least one network node to the content according to a whole hit rate condition of the at least one network node.

12. The network node according to claim 9, wherein the processor is configured to calculate path costs C=C_1,n of each forwarding path respectively, wherein,

C_i,n=Φ

_i+1R_i+1P_i,i+1+(1−

Φ

_i+1R_i+1)(P_i,i+1+C_i+1,n),(i<

n),

the n is a quantity of network nodes on a forwarding path calculated currently;

when a (i+1)^th network node in n network nodes is responsible for caching the content, the Φ

_i+11=1, otherwise, the Φ

_i+1=0;

the R_i+1 is a cache hit rate of the (i+1)^th network node to the content;

the P_i,i+1 is link cost from a i^th network node to the (i+1)^th network node in the n network nodes; and

the C_i,n is path cost from the i^th network node to a n^th network node in the n network nodes; and

select a forwarding path with a minimum path cost from the at least two forwarding paths as the content acquisition path.

13. The network node according to claim 10, the receiver is further configured to receive a content data packet generated by a cache network node hitting the content or generated by the original content provider, wherein the content data packet carries hit rate information of all cache network nodes passed by the request to the content;

and

the processor is further configured to extract the hit rate information in the content data packet, and update hit rate information of corresponding network nodes to the content stored locally.

14. The network node according to claim 11, the receiver is further configured to receive a content data packet generated by a cache network node hitting the content or generated by the original content provider, wherein the content data packet carries hit rate information of all cache network nodes passed by the request to the content;

and

the processor is further configured to extract the hit rate information in the content data packet, and update hit rate information of corresponding network nodes to the content stored locally.

15. A cache network node, comprising:

a receiver, configured to receive a request from a user, wherein the request is used for requesting an original content provider to provide a content, the request carries a name of the content, a network address of the original content provider and a network address of the user, and the cache network node is a network node responsible for caching the content; and

a processor, configured to check a local cache and perform a process according to a hit condition of the local cache to the content, including;

if hitting the content, updating a hit rate of the local cache to the content, generating a content data packet, and sending the content data packet to the user as a response to the request, wherein the content data packet carries hit rate information of the cache network node to the content;

or,

if not hitting the content, updating a hit rate of the local cache to the content, and sending the request to the original content provider after performing the following process on the request;

carrying hit rate information of the cache network node to the content in the request.

16. The cache network node according to claim 15, wherein the processor is further configured to, in a condition that the cache network node hits the content and the request further carries hit rate information of other cache network nodes to the content, extract the hit rate information, wherein the other cache network nodes are nodes passed by the request before arriving at the cache network node;

and

carry the hit rate information extracted by the extracting module in the content data packet.

17. The cache network node according to claim 15, wherein the processor is further configured to, in a condition that the cache network node does not hit the content, determine a next hop according to content acquisition path information carried in the request;

or,

in a condition that the cache network node does not hit the content, calculate at least two forwarding paths to the original content provider, determine a content acquisition path according to link cost on each forwarding path and a cache hit rate of a network node on each forwarding path to the content, and determine a next hop according to the determined content acquisition path.

18. The cache network node according to claim 16, the receiver is further configured to, in a condition that the cache network node does not hit the content, receive a content data packet generated by a cache network node hitting the content or generated by the original content provider, wherein the content data packet carries hit rate information of all cache network nodes passed by the request to the content;

and

the processor is further configured to send the content data packet to the user.

19. The cache network node according to claim 16, the receiver is further configured to, in a condition that the cache network node does not hit the content, receive a content data packet generated by a cache network node hitting the content or generated by the original content provider, wherein the content data packet carries hit rate information of all cache network nodes passed by the request to the content;

and

the processor is further configured to extract the hit rate information in the content data packet, update hit rate information of corresponding network nodes to the content stored locally, and send the content data packet to the user.