Managing content delivery network service providers

• US 8,073,940 B1
• Filed: 11/17/2008
• Issued: 12/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Richardson, David R., Marshall, Bradley E., Sivasubramanian, Swaminathan, Saraf, Tal
• Primary Examiner(s): Sall, El Hadji
• Application Number:
  US12/272,699
• Time in Patent Office: 1,114 Days
• Field of Search: 709/220, 709/223, 709/226, 709/200, 709/228, 725/145
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1023 based on a hash applied to IP addresses or costs
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

A system, method, and computer readable medium for managing CDN service providers are provided. A network storage provider storing one or more resources on behalf of a content provider obtains client computing device requests for content. The network storage provider processes the client computing device requests and determines whether a subsequent request for the resource should be directed to a CDN service provider as a function of the updated or processed by the network storage provider storage component.

Claims

1. A system for managing content requests comprising:

a data store operative to maintain request processing information corresponding to requested resources, the request processing information including at least one of financial cost information, quality of service information, volume of request information and content provider specified specific criteria;

one or more storage components operative to store resources on behalf of a content provider and provide the resources in response to client computing device requests, wherein the one or more storage components correspond to storage components distinct from content provider provided storage components; and

a storage management component operative to;

obtain a client computing device domain name system (DNS) query corresponding to a requested resource;

as a function of the request processing information, determine whether a subsequent request for the requested resource corresponding to the DNS query should be received by a storage component associated with a network storage component or by one or more content delivery network (CDN) service providers, wherein the storage management component makes the determination by;

associating a financial cost with the storage component associated with the network storage component, wherein the financial cost corresponds to a financial cost attributed to the content provider for providing the requested resource by the storage component associated with the network storage component;

associating a financial cost with each of the one or more CDN service providers, wherein the financial cost corresponds to a financial cost attributed to the content provider for providing the requested resource by each of the one or more CDN service providers respectively; and

selecting at least one alternative resource identifier associated with at least one of the storage component associated with the network storage component and the one or more CDN service providers based on a financial cost for providing the requested resource below a cost threshold; and

in response to the DNS query, cause the return of the at least one alternative resource identifier.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the client computing device DNS query is associated with an embedded resource.

3. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the volume of request information includes at least one of a total number of requests obtained from client computing devices for a resource over a defined period of time, trends regarding an increase in requests from client computing devices for the resource, and trends regarding a decrease in requests from client computing devices for the resource.

4. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the storage management component is further operative to cause the registration of a CDN service provider such that the CDN service provider will begin providing the requested resource.

5. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the registration of the CDN service provider is completed automatically without requiring additional interaction from a content provider.

6. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the alternative resource identifier corresponds to a CDN service provider associated with a lowest financial cost for providing the requested resource.

7. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein selecting at least one alternative resource identifier associated with at least one of the storage component associated with the network storage component and the one or more CDN service providers includes selecting at least one alternative resource identifier based on at least one of a characteristic of the content provider and a characteristic of the client computing device.

8. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the storage management component is further operative to return an IP address associated with the storage components based on the determination of whether a subsequent request for the requested resource should be received by a storage component associated with a network storage component or by one or more CDN service providers.

9. A method for managing resource requests comprising:

obtaining a domain name system (DNS) query from a client computing device, the DNS query corresponding to a resource maintained by a network storage provider on behalf of a content provider;

associating a financial cost with each of one or more storage components associated with a network storage component, wherein the financial cost corresponds to a financial cost attributed to the content provider for providing the resource corresponding to the DNS query by each of the one or more storage components associated with the network storage component respectively;

associating a financial cost with each of one or more content delivery network (CDN) service providers, wherein the financial cost corresponds to a financial cost attributed to the content provider for providing the resource corresponding to the DNS query by each of the one or more CDN service providers respectively;

selecting one of a network address associated with one of the one or more storage components associated with the network storage component or an alternative resource identifier associated with one of the one or more CDN service providers based on a financial cost for providing the resource below a cost threshold and at least one other request routing criterion; and

transmitting the selected one of the alternative resource identifier s associated with one of the one or more CDN service providers or the IP address associated with one of the one or more storage components associated with the network storage provider.

10. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the request routing criterion includes at least one of a total number of requests obtained from client computing devices for a resource over a defined period of time, trends regarding an increase in requests from client computing devices for the resource, and trends regarding a decrease in requests from client computing devices for the resource.

11. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the at least one other request routing criterion includes cost information.

12. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein the cost information includes financial cost information attributable to the content provider.

13. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein the at least one other request routing criterion includes a lowest financial cost for providing the requested resource.

14. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein transmitting the alternative resource identifier associated with one of the one or more CDN service providers or the IP address associated with one of the one or more storage components associated with the network storage provider includes:

identifying one or more service providers associated with a quality of service for providing the requested resource; and

selecting a service provider from the one or more service providers based on a quality of service threshold.

15. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein transmitting the alternative resource identifier associated with one of the one or more CDN service providers or the IP address associated with one of the one or more storage components associated with the network storage provider includes:

identifying one or more service providers associated with a content provider metric for providing the requested resource; and

selecting a service provider from the one or more service providers based on a content provider metric threshold.

16. The method as recited in claim 9 further comprising causing the registration of a CDN service provider such that the CDN service provider will begin providing the requested resource.

17. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the alternative resource identifier corresponds to a canonical name (CNAME).

18. A method comprising:

obtaining a domain name system (DNS) query from a client computing device, the DNS query corresponding to a request for a resource associated with a content provider;

associating a financial cost with each of one or more storage components associated with a network storage component, wherein the financial cost corresponds to a cost attributed to the content provider for providing the resource by each of the one or more storage components associated with the network storage component respectively;

associating a financial cost with each of one or more content delivery network (CDN) service providers, wherein the financial cost corresponds to a cost attributed to the content provider for providing the resource by each of the one or more CDN service providers respectively;

selecting an alternative resource identifier associated with one of the one or more CDN service providers based on a financial cost for providing the resource below a cost threshold and at least one other request routing criterion; and

providing the alternative resource identifier responsive to the DNS query,

wherein the alternative resource identifier is provided as an alternative to identifying an IP address of a storage component of a network storage service provider obtaining the DNS query.

19. The method as recited in claim 18, wherein the request routing criterion comprises at least one of financial cost information, quality of service information, and volume of request information.

20. The method as recited in claim 19, wherein the financial cost information includes financial cost information attributable to the content provider.

21. The method as recited in claim 18, wherein the alternative resource identifier is provided as an alternative to identifying an IP address of a storage component of a network storage service provider when a CDN service provider is associated with a lowest financial cost for providing the requested resource.

22. The method as recited in claim 18, wherein the alternative resource identifier is provided as an alternative to identifying an IP address of a storage component of a network storage service provider when a CDN service provider is associated with a financial cost for providing the requested resource below a threshold financial cost.

23. The method as recited in claim 18, wherein the alternative resource identifier is provided as an alternative to identifying an IP address of a storage component of a network storage service provider when a CDN service provider meeting is associated with a quality of service a quality of service threshold for providing the requested resource.

24. The method as recited in claim 18, wherein the alternative resource identifier is provided as an alternative to identifying an IP address of a storage component of a network storage service provider when a CDN service provider is associated with a content provider metric meeting a content provider metric threshold for providing the requested resource.

25. The method as recited in claim 18 further comprising causing the registration of a CDN service provider such that the CDN service provider will begin providing the requested resource.

26. The method as recited in claim 18, wherein the alternative resource identifier corresponds to a canonical name (CNAME).

27. The method as recited in claim 19, wherein the volume of request information includes at least one of a total number of requests obtained from client computing devices for a resource over a defined period of time, trends regarding an increase in requests from client computing devices for the resource, and trends regarding a decrease in requests from client computing devices for the resource.