Method for accelerating delivery of content in a computer network

• US 7,054,917 B1
• Filed: 08/07/2002
• Issued: 05/30/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/07/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Propel Software Corporation (Apple Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Propel Software Corporation (Apple Inc.)
• Inventors: Kirsch, Steven T., Lee, Peter K., Beckmann, Reuben R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Philip B.
• Application Number:
  US10/214,965
• Time in Patent Office: 1,392 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217, 709218-219, 709/203, 709223-226, 709/213, 707/3, 707/6
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5681 Pre-fetching or pre-delivering data based on network characteristics
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5682 Policies or rules for updating, deleting or replacing the stored data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/04 Protocols for data compression, e.g. ROHC
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access

Abstract

A method of reducing network congestion and service latency associated with downloading Web pages containing third party advertisements. In one embodiment, pattern recognition algorithms are employed to determine whether a request for a URL may be satisfied by the content associated with a URL which is contained in the client'"'"'s cache; if there is a pattern match, the cached contents associated with the URL are delivered to the browser to satisfy the request. In another embodiment, images associated with HTML snippet ads are requested and cached by client software before they are requested by the browser downloading the Web page where the images will be displayed. In a third embodiment, latency is reduced by “time shifting,” wherein a cached ad is displayed while client software requests and caches the ad originally requested ad, which will be shown the next time the URL is requested. In other embodiments, this time-shifting technique may also be combined with the pattern-recognition technique and the approach to accelerating delivery of HTML snippet ads.

Claims

1. In a communications network, a method for accelerating delivery of data comprising:

a) receiving a request for data from a client'"'"'s Web browser at client network software associated with a first cache containing data sent to the client, said request directed to a data source in the communications network, wherein the data source is a content provider, a content provider proxy, or a network hub intermediating between the first proxy and the con-tent provider, the hub having a second cache containing data transmitted from the content provider through the hub;

b) determining whether content corresponding to the requested URL is already in the first cache and, if so

i) returning the content to the client'"'"'s browser;

otherwise

ii) determining whether the requested URL matches a pattern of other URLs in the first cache and, if so

A) returning content corresponding to a pattern-matching URL to the client'"'"'s browser;

otherwise

B) requesting the data from the data source, said request sent from the client network software;

C) receiving requested data from the data source at the client network software;

D) determining whether a URL corresponding to the requested data matches a pattern of other URLs stored in the first cache and determining whether the URL which matches the pattern of other URLs stored in the first cache has an expiration time which less than a predetermined period of expiration time, said determination of expiration time performed prior to returning the requested data to the client'"'"'s browser; and

E) returning the requested data to the client'"'"'s browser if the corresponding URL does not match the pattern of other URLs stored in the first cache, otherwise adding the content corresponding to the URL to the first cache before returning the requested data to the client'"'"'s browser.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising setting the expiration time of the URL to equal the predetermined expiration time, said setting performed prior to returning the requested data to the client'"'"'s browser.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the communications network is a private persistent network having a plurality of hubs, each hub connected to another hub by a dedicated socket connection, wherein there is bi-directional asynchronous communication between dedicated pairs of network hubs, each hub having means for caching data transmitted through the hub at a database of the hub.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the client and the data source are hubs in the private persistent network.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the data source is also a member of a public global communications network.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein the client is also a member of a public global communications network.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the communications network is a public global communications network.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising compressing the requested data at the data source with an encoder, said compressing consisting of representing runs of data with at least one identifier, wherein the encoder is software installed at the data source.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising decompressing compressed requested data with the client network software.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the requested data is an advertisement.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the URL corresponding to requested data is compressed by the client network software, said compression consisting of representing runs of data with at least one identifier.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising caching content in the first cache using a corresponding compressed URL as a key.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein a standard pattern-matching algorithm is used to determine whether the requested URL matches a pattern of other URLs in the first cache.

14. In a communications network, a method for accelerating delivery of data comprising:

a) receiving a first request for a first set of data from a client'"'"'s Web browser at client network software associated with a first cache containing data sent to the client, said request directed to a first data source in the communications network, wherein the data source is a content provider, a content provider proxy, or a network hub intermediating between the first proxy and the content provider, the hub having a second cache containing data transmitted from the content provider through the hub;

b) requesting the first set of data from the first data source, said request sent from the client network software;

c) receiving requested first set of data from the first data source at the client;

network software;

d) determining which URLs in the first set of data correspond to a second data source, wherein the second data source is a second content provider, a second content provider proxy, or a second network hub intermediating between the first proxy and the second content provider, the hub having a third cache containing data transmitted from the second content provider through the hub, wherein the determination of which URLs in the first set of data correspond to the second data source is made by a pattern-matching algorithm which is created manually on a by-domain basis after examining the requested URL;

e) combining all requests for a second set of data from the second data source in a second request;

f) sending said second request to the second data source;

g) receiving the requested second set data from the second data source at the client network software;

h) parsing out requests for images contained in the second set of requested data;

i) determining whether requested images are contained in the first cache;

j) combining all requests for images not contained in the first cache in a third request;

k) sending said third request to the second data source;

l) receiving requested images from the second data source at the client network software; and

m) adding requested images to the first cache, wherein an image requested by the client'"'"'s browser is supplied by the first cache.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the second set of data includes HTML snippets.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein the second set of data includes advertisements.

17. The method of claim 14 wherein the communications network is a private persistent network having a plurality of hubs, each hub connected to another hub by a dedicated socket connection, wherein there is bi-directional asynchronous communication between dedicated pairs of network hubs, each hub having means for caching data transmitted through the hub at a database of the hub.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the client, first data source, and second data source are hubs in the private persistent network.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the first data source is also a member of a public global communications network.

20. The method of claim 18 wherein the second data source is also a member of a public global communications network.

21. The method of claim 18 wherein the client is also a member of a public global communications network.

22. The method of claim 14 wherein the communications network is a public global communications network.

23. The method of claim 14 further comprising compressing the requested data at the first data source with an encoder, said compressing consisting of representing runs of data with at least one identifier, wherein the encoder is software installed at the first data source.

24. The method of claim 23 further comprising decompressing compressed requested data with the client network software.

25. The method of claim 14 further comprising compressing the requested data at the second data source with an encoder, said compressing consisting of representing runs of data with at least one identifier, wherein the encoder is software installed at the second data source.

26. The method of claim 25 further comprising decompressing compressed requested data with the client network software.

27. The method of claim 14 wherein the URL corresponding to requested data is compressed by the client network software, said compression consisting of representing runs of data with at least one identifier.

28. The method of claim 14 further comprising adding content to the first cache using a corresponding compressed URL as a key.

29. In a communications network, a method for accelerating delivery of data comprising:

a) receiving a request for a first set of data from a client'"'"'s Web browser at client network software associated with a first cache containing data sent to the client, wherein the first set of data is a member of a group having sets of data that are serially presented, and wherein the data source is a content provider, a content provider proxy, or a network hub intermediating between the client and the content provider, the hub having a second cache containing data transmitted from the content provider through the hub;

b) determining whether the first set of data is contained in the first cache, and if so

i) returning the cached set of data to the client'"'"'s browser, requesting a second set of data from the data source, wherein the second set of data is also a member of the group having sets of data that are serially presented, and wherein the second set of data is to be shown subsequent to the first set of data, receiving the second set of data at the client network software, and caching the second set of data in the first cache;

otherwise

ii) determining whether a URL corresponding to the request for the first set of data matches a pattern of other URLs stored in the first cache wherein a standard pattern-matching algorithm is used to determine whether the URL corresponding to the request for the first set of data matches a pattern of other URLs stored in the first cache, and further determining whether the URL which matches the pattern of other URLs stored in the first cache has an expiration time which is less than a predetermined period of expiration time, said determination of expiration time performed prior to returning the requested data to the client'"'"'s browser, and if so

A) returning data corresponding to the pattern-matching URL to the client'"'"'s browser, requesting the first set of data from the data source, receiving the first set;

of data at client network software, and caching the first set of data in the first cache;

otherwise

B) requesting the first set of data from the data source, receiving the first set of data at the client network software, returning the first set of data to the client'"'"'s browser, and caching the first set of data in the first cache.

30. The method of claim 29 further comprising sending the request for the first set of data from the client network software to the data source at a low priority.

31. The method of claim 29 wherein the communications network is a private persistent network having a plurality of hubs, each hub connected to another hub by a dedicated socket connection, wherein there is bi-directional asynchronous communication between dedicated pairs of network hubs, each hub having means for caching data transmitted through the hub at a database of the hub.

32. The method of claim 29 wherein the client and data source are hubs in the private persistent network.

33. The method of claim 32 wherein the data source is also a member of a public global communications network.

34. The method of claim 32 wherein the client is also a member of a public global communications network.

35. The method of claim 29 wherein the communications network is a public global communications network.

36. The method of claim 29 further comprising compressing the requested data at the data source with an encoder, said compressing consisting of representing runs of data with at least one identifier, wherein the encoder is software installed at the data source.

37. The method of claim 36 further comprising decompressing compressed requested data with the client network software.

38. The method of claim 29 wherein the first set of data is an advertisement.

39. The method of claim 29 wherein the URL corresponding to requested data is compressed by the client network software, said compression consisting of representing runs of data with at least one identifier.

40. The method of claim 29 further comprising content in the first cache using the corresponding compressed URL as a key.

41. In a communications network, a method for accelerating delivery of data comprising:

a) receiving a first request for a first set of data from a client'"'"'s Web browser at client network software associated with a first cache containing data transmitted to the client, wherein the first data source is a content provider, a content provider proxy, or a network hub intermediating between the client and the content provider, the hub having a second cache containing data transmitted from the content provider through the hub;

b) returning a second set of data to the clients browser, wherein a first URL corresponding to the second set of data matches a pattern of a second URL corresponding to the first request, said second set of data stored in first cache, wherein a pattern matching algorithm is created manually on a by-domain basis after examining the requested URL, the manually-created pattern-matching algorithm is used to determined whether the first URL corresponding to the second set of data matches the pattern of the second URL, the first URL having an expiration time which is less than a predetermined period of expiration time;

c) requesting the first set of data from the first data source, said request sent from the client network software;

d) receiving the requested first set of data from the first data source;

e) parsing out requests for images contained in the first set of data;

f) determining whether requested images are contained in the first cache;

g) combining all requests for images not contained in the first cache in a second request;

h) sending said second request to a second data source, wherein the second data source is a second content provider, a second content provider proxy, or a second network hub intermediating between the client and the second content provider, the second hub having third cache containing data transmitted from the second content provider through the second hub;

i) receiving requested images from the second data source; and

j) adding requested images to the first cache, wherein an image requested by the client'"'"'s browser is supplied by the first cache.

42. The method of claim 41 wherein the communications network is a private persistent network having a plurality of hubs, each hub connected to another hub by a dedicated socket connection, wherein there is bi-directional asynchronous communication between dedicated pairs of network hubs, each hub having means for caching data transmitted through the hub at a database of the hub.

43. The method of claim 42 wherein the client, first data source, and second data source are hubs in the private persistent network.

44. The method of claim 43 wherein the first data source is also a member of a public global communications network.

45. The method of claim 43 wherein the second data source is also a member of a public global communications network.

46. The method of claim 43 wherein the client is also a member of a public global communications network.

47. The method of claim 41 wherein the communications network is a public global communications network.

48. The method of claim 41 further comprising compressing the requested data at the first data source with an encoder, said compressing consisting of representing runs of data with at least one identifier, wherein the encoder is software installed at the first data source.

49. The method of claim 48 further comprising decompressing compressed requested data with client network software.

50. The method of claim 41 further comprising compressing the requested data at the second data source with an encoder, said compressing consisting of representing runs of data with at least one identifier, wherein the encoder is software installed at the second data source.

51. The method of claim 50 further comprising decompressing compressed requested data with client network software.

52. The method of claim 41 wherein the sets of data are advertisements.

53. The method of claim 41 wherein a URL corresponding to a requested set of data is compressed by the client network software, said compression consisting of representing runs of data with at least one identifier.

54. The method of claim 41 further comprising caching content in the first cache using the corresponding compressed URL as a key.