Content delivery network with customized tracking of delivery data

• US 8,489,731 B2
• Filed: 08/20/2009
• Issued: 07/16/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: StackPath LLC
• Original Assignee: Highwinds Holdings, Inc.
• Inventors: Gagliardi, Joshua D., Munger, Timothy S., Ploesser, Donald W., Spencer, Deborah A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Backer, Firmin
• Assistant Examiner(s): BUI, JONATHAN A
• Application Number:
  US12/545,018
• Publication Number:
  US 20100306368A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,426 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224, 709/219, 709/223, 709/225, 709/226
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/045 for graphical visualisation of monitoring data

Abstract

A custom tracking system can provide functionality for operators of content sites to specify types of content delivery data to be tracked in a content delivery network. The custom tracking system can propagate operator tracking preferences to edge nodes in the content delivery network, such as delivery servers, which can track delivery data according to the preferences. The custom tracking system can use one or more tracking filters to reduce the storage burden of certain tracking requests while still providing relevant results. The custom tracking system can output results of the custom tracking for presentation to the content site operator.

Claims

1. A method of allowing an operator of a content site to specify content delivery statistics to be gathered by a content delivery network, the method comprising:

receiving, from a provider of a content site, content comprising a file for download or streaming;

provisioning the content to a plurality of delivery servers of a content delivery network, thereby hosting the content on behalf of the content site provider, such that a request from an end user for the content directed to a server of the content site is redirected to one of the delivery servers of the content delivery network, the delivery servers each comprising an edge node in the content delivery network;

outputting a custom tracking user interface for presentation to the content site provider with one or more processors, the custom tracking user interface providing functionality for the content site provider to specify one or more types of content delivery data to be tracked by the content delivery network;

receiving a custom tracking request from the content site provider with the custom tracking user interface, the custom tracking request identifying a selected type of content delivery data to be tracked and one or more data sources for tracking the selected type of content delivery data, wherein the selected type of content delivery data is not currently being tracked, and wherein the one or more data sources comprise one or more of the following;

an HTTP cookie and an HTTP header;

automatically instructing the delivery servers to track the selected type of content delivery data in response to receiving the custom tracking request by at least instructing the delivery servers to look for the selected type of content delivery data in the one or more data sources;

receiving tracked content delivery data from the delivery servers, the tracked content delivery data comprising custom statistics regarding deliveries of the content from the one or more delivery servers to a plurality of end users, the custom statistics being obtained responsive to the custom tracking request; and

outputting a reporting user interface comprising at least a portion of the content delivery data for presentation to the content site provider.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said instructing the one or more delivery servers comprises instructing the one or more delivery servers to access key-value data associated with the specified one or more sources.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the key-value data comprises one or more of the following:

user preferences, end user device types, end user operating system types, end user demographic information, affiliate marketing codes, and redirections to user information.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the custom tracking user interface further comprises functionality for the operator of the content site to specify one or more reporting formats of the content delivery data to be shown in the reporting user interface.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the one or more reporting formats include one or more of the following:

a table, a histogram, a percentage, a ratio, a sum, and a map.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the types of content delivery data to be tracked to the one or more delivery servers comprises communicating the types of delivery data using a web service.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the reporting user interface is configured to push the content delivery data to a computer system of the operator of the content site.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising cross-tabulating the delivery data with the one or more delivery servers to produce condensed delivery data and providing the condensed delivery data from the one or more delivery servers to a usage server, such that as delivery traffic increases in the content delivery network, a volume of the cross-tabulated delivery data increases at a slower rate than a rate of increase in the delivery traffic.

9. A system for allowing an operator of a content site to specify content delivery data to be gathered by a content delivery network, the system comprising:

a content management module executing on a content delivery network, the content management module operative to provide a first user interface accessible by an operator of a content site, the first user interface providing functionality for the operator of the content site to upload content to a content delivery network, the content delivery network operative to deliver the content to end users of the content site from one or more delivery servers in response to receiving requests to serve the content, the one or more delivery servers being edge nodes in the content delivery network;

a custom tracking module, the custom tracking module operative to output a second user interface for display to the operator of the content site with one or more processors, the second user interface providing functionality for the operator of the content site to specify a custom tracking request comprising a type of content delivery data, which is not currently being tracked, to be tracked by the content delivery network, and to specify one or more data sources for tracking the selected type of content delivery data, wherein the one or more data sources comprise one or more of the following;

an HTTP cookie and an HTTP header,

the second user interface further operative to provide the type of content delivery data to be tracked to the one or more delivery servers and to instruct the one or more delivery servers to look for the type of content delivery data to be tracked in the one or more data sources, such that the one or more delivery servers are operative to obtain the specified content delivery data, the specified content delivery data comprising custom statistics regarding deliveries of the content from the one or more delivery servers to the end users, the custom statistics being obtained responsive to the custom tracking request; and

a reporting module operative to output the content delivery data for presentation to the operator of the content site in a reporting user interface.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the data comprises one or more of the following:

key-value pairs, user preferences, end user device types, end user operating system types, end user demographic information, and affiliate marketing codes.

11. A method of tracking usage data in a content delivery network based at least partly on tracking preferences specified by an operator of a content site, the method comprising:

receiving delivery tracking preferences from an operator of a content site with a delivery server, the delivery tracking preferences specifying;

one or more types of content delivery data, which is not currently being tracked, to be tracked by the delivery server, and

one or more data sources for tracking the one or more types of content delivery data, wherein the one or more data sources comprise one or more of the following;

an HTTP cookie and an HTTP header;

the delivery server being a node in a content delivery network, wherein the delivery server hosts content on behalf of the content site;

providing the content to one or more users of the content site with the delivery server;

tracking the specified types of content delivery data with the delivery server to produce tracked content delivery data, the tracked content delivery data comprising custom statistics regarding deliveries of the content from the delivery server to the one or more users, the custom statistics being obtained responsive to the delivery tracking preferences; and

submitting the content delivery data to another node in the content delivery network to enable the operator of the content site to obtain access to the content delivery data.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said tracking comprises using a tracking filter to determine the amount of content delivery data that exceeds a threshold.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said using the tracking filter comprises applying a parallel multistage filter to the content delivery data.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the tracked content delivery data comprises one or more of the following:

a number of requests for the content, an amount of the content delivered, key-value data, IP addresses of the one or more users, an affiliate code, location data of the one or more users, user preferences, end user device types, end user operating system types, and demographic data of the one or more users.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the delivery tracking preferences specify one or more mathematical operations to perform on the tracked delivery data.

16. A method of allowing content site operators to change a type of delivery data tracked by edge nodes in a content delivery network, the method comprising:

collecting a first type of delivery data with one or more delivery servers in a content delivery network, the first type of delivery data comprising information associated with deliveries of content to end users of a content site, the content being hosted by the content delivery network on behalf of the content site;

providing an operator of the content site with an option to change the first type of content data to be tracked to a custom type of delivery data to be tracked and to specify one or more data sources for tracking the one or more types of content delivery data, wherein the custom type of delivery data was not being tracked previously, and wherein the one or more data sources comprise one or more of the following;

an HTTP cookie and an HTTP header;

in response to receiving a request from the content site operator specifying a second type of delivery data to be tracked, changing with one or more processors the first type of content data to be tracked to the second type of delivery data to be tracked; and

tracking the second type of delivery data with the one or more delivery servers from the one or more specified data sources, the second type of delivery data comprising custom statistics regarding deliveries of the content from the one or more delivery servers to the end users of the content site.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the second type of delivery data to be tracked comprises one or more of the following:

key-value pairs, user preferences, end user device types, end user operating system types, end user demographic information, and affiliate marketing codes.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein said providing the operator of the content site with the option comprises providing a custom tracking interface to the content site operator.