Apparatus and method for caching of compressed content in a content delivery network

• US 8,903,937 B2
• Filed: 12/05/2012
• Issued: 12/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Akamai Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Akamai Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Afergan, Michael M., Hong, Duke P., Rao, Satish B., LaFleur, Charisma J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Moise, Emmanuel L
• Assistant Examiner(s): Korobov, Vitali
• Application Number:
  US13/705,821
• Publication Number:
  US 20130103782A1
• Time in Patent Office: 727 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/217, 709/219, 709/225, 709/231, 709/232, 709/247, 709/213, 358/408, 370/395.43, 705/51
• US Class Current: 709/213
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/167 using a common memory, e.g. mailbox
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/20 Hop count for routing purposes, e.g. TTL
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/04 Protocols for data compression, e.g. ROHC

Abstract

A content delivery network (CDN) edge server is provisioned to provide last mile acceleration of content to requesting end users. The CDN edge server fetches, compresses and caches content obtained from a content provider origin server, and serves that content in compressed form in response to receipt of an end user request for that content. It also provides “on-the-fly” compression of otherwise uncompressed content as such content is retrieved from cache and is delivered in response to receipt of an end user request for such content. A preferred compression routine is gzip, as most end user browsers support the capability to decompress files that are received in this format. The compression functionality preferably is enabled on the edge server using customer-specific metadata tags.

Claims

1. A content delivery method operative at a server to which a client machine has been directed by a content delivery network (CDN) request routing mechanism, the server having a cache, wherein the server is managed by a service provider and shared by a set of participating content providers that provide content to be delivered over the CDN, the content delivery method comprising:

upon receipt of a request for given content from the client machine that cannot be serviced at the server, fetching the given content from an origin server;

determining whether the given content should be stored in the cache in an uncompressed or compressed form by evaluating a function trading off anticipated storage time in the cache versus processing overhead required to perform the compression;

selectively storing the given content either uncompressed or compressed based on the determination, wherein the determination overrides a metadata tag that would otherwise dictate storage of the content in compressed form.

2. The content delivery method as described in claim 1 wherein the determining step is performed upon a given condition.

3. The content delivery method as described in claim 2 wherein the given condition is a determination based on evaluating properties of a connection between the server and the client machine.

4. The content delivery method as described in claim 3 wherein if the connection between the server and the client machine is a broadband connection, not compressing the given content for storage in the cache.

5. The content delivery method as described in claim 1, wherein the anticipated storage time is based at least in part on a time-to-live (TTL) value.

6. A server to which a client machine has been directed by a content delivery network (CDN) request routing mechanism, wherein the server is managed by a service provider and shared by a set of participating content providers that provide content to be delivered over the CDN, the server comprising:

circuitry forming one or more processors;

memory holding instructions to be executed by the one or more processors;

a cache;

wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the server to;

upon receipt of a request for given content from the client machine that cannot be serviced at the server, fetch the given content from an origin server;

determine whether the given content should be stored in the cache in an uncompressed or compressed form by evaluating a function trading off anticipated storage time in the cache versus processing overhead required to perform the compression;

selectively store the given content either uncompressed or compressed based on the determination, wherein the determination overrides a metadata tag that would otherwise dictate storage of the content in compressed form.

7. The server as described in claim 6 wherein, upon execution, the instructions cause the server to perform the determining step upon a given condition.

8. The server as described in claim 7 wherein the given condition is a determination based on evaluating properties of a connection between the server and the client machine.

9. The server as described in claim 8 wherein upon execution the instructions cause the server, if the connection between the server and the client machine is a broadband connection, to not compress the given content for storage in the cache.