Cooperative management of distributed network caches

• US 7,117,262 B2
• Filed: 10/30/2001
• Issued: 10/03/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Inktomi Corporation (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Cheng, Paul, Bai, Joseph J., Carney, Robert, Crane, Jonathan C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Najjar, Saleh
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bruckart, Benjamin R.
• Application Number:
  US10/017,997
• Publication Number:
  US 20020107944A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,799 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 709/224, 709/203, 709/225, 705/14, 705/40
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/288 Distributed intermediate devices, i.e. intermediate devices for interaction with other intermediate devices on the same level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/564 Enhancement of application control based on intercepted application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5682 Policies or rules for updating, deleting or replacing the stored data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

The techniques described employ a cooperative organization of network service providers to provide improved distributed network services. The network service providers that are constituent to the cooperative organization represent various perspectives within the overall Internet content distribution network, and may include network owners, telecommunications carriers, network access providers, hosting providers and distribution network owners, the latter being an entity that caches content at a plurality of locations distributed on the network. Aspects include managing content caches by receiving control signals specifying actions related to cached content that is distributed on a network, such as the Internet, and forwarding the control signals through to the caching locations to implement the actions represented by the control signals, thus providing content publishers the capability of refreshing their content regardless of where it is cached. Aspects include managing content caches by receiving activity records that contain statistics related to requests for cached content, segregating the statistics according to which content publisher provides the content associated with the statistics, and providing to each content publisher statistics corresponding to content provided by that content publisher, thus allowing them to monitor requests for their content regardless of where it may be cached on the network.

Claims

1. A method for managing content caches distributed on a network, comprising the steps of:

in response to a first request, via a first network access provider, for particular content wherein the particular content is served from a first server cache at a first location on the network, creating at the first server a first activity record corresponding to the first request;

in response to a second request, via a second network access provider, for the particular content wherein the particular content is served from a second server cache at a second location on the network that is a different location from the first location, creating at the second server a second activity record corresponding to the second request;

receiving from the first server, at a gateway to the first network access provider network, a first set of activity records that contain statistics about requests for content that resides in caches at a plurality of locations wherein the first set of activity records includes the first activity record;

receiving from the second server, at a gateway to the second network access provider network, a second set of activity records that contain statistics about requests for content that resides in caches at a plurality of locations, wherein the second set of activity records includes the second activity record;

forwarding the set of activity records to a cooperative gateway server managed by a cooperative of network service providers, wherein the cooperative of network service providers comprises (a) the first and second access providers, (b) distribution network owners associated with the first and second servers, and (c) content hosting providers associated with content publishers;

the cooperative gateway server collating the set of activity records based on which content publisher provided the content associated with each respective activity record;

forwarding collated activity records to respective content hosting providers associated with respective content publishers; and

providing, to each of a plurality of content publishers whose content is distributed in various caches on the network, statistics based on activity records and the corresponding requests for content provided by the content publisher so that the plurality of content publishers can monitor the overall number of accesses to their respective content regardless of the content cache location.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising, prior to the step of providing statistics to each content publisher, the step of:

creating an activity log comprising statistics corresponding only to content provided by a specific content publisher of the plurality of content publishers.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of:

aggregating, at the gateway to the first network access provider network, activity records from a plurality of edge servers.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of receiving the first set of activity records comprises receiving activity records originating at one or more edge servers.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the first set of activity records includes activity records that are related to requests for content provided by two or more content publishers, the method further comprising the step of:

forwarding the first set of activity records to a trusted third party wherein the third party aggregates the activity records included in the first set based on which content publisher provided the content associated with each of the activity records; and

wherein the step of providing statistics is performed by the third party by transmitting statistics associated with content provided by a first content publisher to a gateway at one or more hosting providers associated with the first content publisher.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one member of the cooperative is from a group consisting of a network owner, and a telecommunications carrier.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

receiving, by a trusted third party, revenue for network services provided by members of the cooperative; and

distributing the revenue to members of the cooperative based on member contribution to the network services provided.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the step of distributing the revenue to members of the cooperative is based on the quality of performance of the member contribution to the network services provided.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

receiving, by the cooperative, revenue for network services provided by members of the cooperative;

distributing the revenue to members of the cooperative based on member contribution to the network services provided.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the step of distributing the revenue to members of the cooperative is based on the quality of performance of the member contribution to the network services provided.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of providing statistics to content publishers includes providing, in response to a request from a particular content publisher, a particular activity log that corresponds to the particular content publisher.

12. The method of claim 1, comprising:

extracting from the activity records demographic information about those who request the content.

13. The method of claim 1, comprising:

extracting from the activity records geographic information about those who request the content.

14. Computer-readable media bearing one or more sequences of instructions for monitoring requests for content cached distributively on a network, wherein execution of the one or more sequences of instructions by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform the steps of:

in response to a first request, via a first network access provider, for particular content wherein the particular content is served from a first server cache at a first location on the network, creating at the first server a first activity record corresponding to the first request;

in response to a second request, via a second network access provider, for the particular content wherein the particular content is served from a second server cache at a second location on the network that is a different location from the first location, creating at the second server a second activity record corresponding to the second request;

receiving from the first server, at a gateway to the first network access provider network, a first set of activity records that contain statistics about requests for content that resides in caches at a plurality of locations, wherein the first set of activity records includes the first activity record;

receiving from the second server, at a gateway to the second network access provider network, a second set of activity records that contain statistics about requests for content that resides in caches at a plurality of locations, wherein the second set of activity records includes the second activity record;

forwarding the set of activity records to a cooperative gateway server managed by a cooperative of network service providers, wherein the cooperative of network service providers comprises (a) the first and second access providers, (b) distribution network owners associated with the first and second servers, and (c) content hosting providers associated with content publishers;

the cooperative gateway server collating the set of activity records based on which content publisher provided the content associated with each respective activity record;

forwarding collated activity records to respective content hosting providers associated with respective content publishers; and

providing, to each of a plurality of content publishers whose content is distributed in various caches on the network, statistics based on activity records and the corresponding requests for provided by the content publisher so that the plurality of content publishers can monitor the overall number of accesses to their respective content regardless of the content cache location.

15. The computer-readable media of claim 14 wherein execution of the one or more sequences of instructions by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform, prior to the step of providing statistics to each content publisher, the step of:

creating an activity log comprising statistics corresponding only to content provided by a specific content publisher of the plurality of content publishers.

16. A method for improving communication among a plurality of parties providing distribution services, over a network, for content that is cached at a plurality of locations, comprising:

a cooperative organization allowing a content publisher to monitor access to content provided by the content publisher, wherein the content resides in distributed caches not controlled by the content publisher, by

providing, via a cooperative gateway server managed by the cooperative organization, to each content publisher of a plurality of content publishers, respective activity records having information about each respective request for access to the cached content provided by that content publisher, wherein the information is collected and aggregated at the cooperative gateway server according to which content publisher provided the content associated with the information;

wherein the information is received at respective gateways to respective network access provider networks;

wherein the information is received at said respective gateways from corresponding servers that serve the content from different locations on the network; and

wherein members of the cooperative organization include (a) a telecommunications carrier, (b) a distribution network owner that caches content at locations distributed across the network for serving to requestors, and (c) a hosting provider that hosts content for one or more of the plurality of content publishers.