Java application framework for use in a content delivery network (CDN)

• US 7,127,713 B2
• Filed: 01/10/2003
• Issued: 10/24/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/11/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Akamai Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Akamai Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Weihl, William E., Davis, Andrew Thomas, Stodolsky, Daniel, Pichai, Srinivasan, Tsimelzon, Mark, Ruvinsky, Eddie, Parikh, Jay
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhen, Wei
• Assistant Examiner(s): DENG, ANNA CHEN
• Application Number:
  US10/340,206
• Publication Number:
  US 20030154239A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,383 Days
• Field of Search: 717174-178, 717/116, 717/126, 717/171, 717/172, 717/127, 709/203, 709/213, 709/232, 709/318, 709217-219, 709223-226, 719/313, 705/51, 707/3, 718/102, 718/105
• US Class Current: 717/177
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0227 Filtering policies mail message filtering H04L51/212
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• 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 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/101 based on network conditions
• 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 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/561 Adding application-functional data or data for application control, e.g. adding metadata
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/564 Enhancement of application control based on intercepted application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

An application deployment model for enterprise applications to enable such applications to be deployed to and executed from a globally distributed computing platform, such as an Internet content delivery network (CDN). According to the invention, application developers separate their Web application into two layers: a highly distributed edge layer and a centralized origin layer. In a representative embodiment, the edge layer supports a servlet container that executes a Web tier, typically the presentation layer of a given Java-based application. Where necessary, the edge layer communicates with code running on an origin server to respond to a given request. In an alternative embodiment, the edge layer supports a more fully-provisioned application server that executes both Web tier (e.g., presentation) and Enterprise tier application (e.g., business logic) components. In either case, the inventive framework enables one or more different applications to be deployed to and executed from the edge server on behalf of one or more respective entities.

Claims

1. In an apparatus for use in a content delivery network, the apparatus having a processor, a virtual machine and platform-independent application server code, the improvement comprising:

a set of one or more platform-independent code components each of which are capable of being executed by the platform-independent application server code;

an edge server process for instantiating a set of one application server code instances, each application server code instance capable of executing a given platform-independent code component;

an application programming interface (API) for interfacing the edge server process to each application server code instance and the given platform-independent code component executing thereon;

a wrapper process responsive to a given application processing request for initializing the API and starting an application server code instance to handle the request using the given platform-independent code component;

a monitoring process to monitor the application server code instances and, responsive to said monitoring, to terminate any application server code instance that attempts to over-utilize a given resource, wherein the given resource is one of;

an amount of system memory, an amount of processor time consumed, a number of disk operations, and a number of open network sockets; and

an enforcing process to enforce one or more security restrictions on each given platform-independent code component executing in a given application server instance, wherein a security restriction is one of;

a restriction on file system reading or writing, a restriction on opening or closing a socket, a restriction on starting, stopping or modifying a thread, a restriction on running or loading code associated with another platform-independent code component, a restriction on loading data associated with another platform-independent code component, and a restriction on making native kernel calls.

2. The apparatus as described in claim 1 further including a logging process to log data as the given platform-independent code component is executed by the application server code instance.

3. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein a first application server code instance executes a first given platform-independent code component, and a second application server code instance executes a second given platform-independent code component.

4. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein a given platform-independent code component is a Web tier component and the application server code instance is a servlet container.

5. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein a given platform-independent code component is an Enterprise tier component and the application server code instance is an application, server.

10. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the platform-independent application server code is an Apache Tomcat servlet container.

11. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the platform-independent application server code is code associated with a NET programming environment.

12. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the monitoring process terminates any application server code instance that attempts to over-utilize a given resource to ensure that no application server code instance can attempt to use the given resource exclusively.

13. The apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein an application server code instance is associated with a virtual machine instance.

14. The apparatus as described in claim 13 wherein a given application server code instance and virtual machine instance are associated with a given content delivery network customer entity exclusively.

6. An apparatus for use in a content delivery network operated by a service provider on behalf of one or more customer entities, comprising:

a processor;

a Java virtual machine;

a servlet container;

a set or one or more Java code components each of which are capable of being executed by the servlet container;

an edge server process for instantiating a set of servlet container instances, each servlet container instance capable of executing a given Java code component on behalf of a given customer entity;

an application programming interface (API) for interfacing a given application processing request to the servlet container instance and the Java code component;

a wrapper process responsive to a given application processing request for initializing the API and starting an servlet code instance to handle the request using the given Java code component;

a monitoring process to monitor the servlet container instances and, responsive to said monitoring, to terminate any servlet container instance that attempts to over-utilize a given resource, wherein the given resource is one of;

an amount of system memory, an amount of processor tune consumed, a number of disk operations, and a number of open network sockets; and

an enforcing process to enforce one or more security, restrictions on each given Java code component executing in a given servlet container instance, wherein a security restriction is one of;

a restriction on file system reading or writing, a restriction on opening or closing a socket, a restriction on starting, stopping or modifying a thread, a restriction on running or loading code associated with another Java code component, a restriction on loading data associated with another Java code component, and a restriction on making native kernel calls.

7. The apparatus as described in claim 6 wherein the servlet container is Apache Tomcat.

8. The apparatus as described in claim 6 wherein the given Java code component facilitates execution of a given application.

9. The apparatus as described in claim 8 wherein the given application is selected from a set of applications that include:

a product configurator, a dealer locator function, a contest engine, a content transcoder, a content generator, a search aggregator, a financial calculator, and a registration engine.

15. The apparatus as described in claim 6 wherein the monitoring process terminates any servlet container instance that attempts to over-utilize a given resource to ensure that no servlet container instance can attempt to use the given resource exclusively.

16. The apparatus as described in claim 6 wherein a servlet code instance is associated with a Java virtual machine instance.

17. The apparatus as described in claim 16 wherein a given servlet code instance and Java virtual machine instance are associated with a given customer entity exclusively.