Personalized content delivery using peer-to-peer precaching

• US 8,903,950 B2
• Filed: 04/19/2007
• Issued: 12/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/05/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Original Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Inventors: Decasper, Dan, Dittia, Zubin
• Primary Examiner(s): BIAGINI, CHRISTOPHER D
• Application Number:
  US11/737,425
• Publication Number:
  US 20070192474A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,784 Days
• Field of Search: 709213-219
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1078 Resource delivery mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5681 Pre-fetching or pre-delivering data based on network characteristics

Abstract

A method and apparatus for peer-to-peer video precaching is described. In one embodiment, the method comprises building a user profile, periodically checking for new content of objects in the user profile, maintaining a data base of available objects and location of said objects, and determining the download location of an object requested by a user.

Claims

1. A method for delivering by a controller a content object to a client for precaching, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving from a client, by a controller, a profile maintained by the client, the client comprising an end node of a local network and having a browser operated by the user, the profile identifying a resource that may be requested by the user based on previous access patterns of the user via the client;

(b) determining, by the controller, that a content object stored on a content server corresponds to the resource identified by the profile; and

(c) transmitting, by the controller, to the client a message comprising a command that the client executes to download the content object from a location identified by the message.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising scheduling, by the controller, a download of the content object to the client based on network information.

3. The method of claim 2, comprising determining, by the controller, the schedule for downloading the content object based on one or more of the following network information:

network topology, bandwidth, delay, congestion and utilization.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein step (b) comprises searching, by the controller, a database of profiles to determine a set of one or more clients having profiles corresponding to the content object.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein step (c) comprises transmitting, by the controller, the message to the client according to a download schedule.

6. The method of claim 1, transmitting, by the client, a request to download the content object from the location, and storing, by the client, the downloaded content object to a cache.

7. The method of claim 6, comprising intercepting, by the client, a request for the content object, and responding to the request with the downloaded content object from the cache.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein step (c) comprises transmitting, by the controller, the request prior to the user requesting the content object from the content server.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein step (a) comprises transmitting, by one of the client or a client appliance, the profile to the controller.

10. The method of claim 1, comprising crawling, by the controller, content of the content server to identify the content object.

11. The method of claim 1, comprising receiving, by the controller, a report from the content server identifying the content object.

12. The method of claim 1, comprising crawling, by a server appliance, content of the content server, and reporting, by the server appliance, to the controller the content object.

13. The method of claim 1, intercepting, by the controller, a request for the content object from a second client to the content server on a wide area network (WAN), and transmitting, by the controller, a second message to the second client to download the content object from the first client.

14. The method of claim 13, comprising requesting, by the second client, the content object from the client.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the location comprises one of the content server on a wide area network (WAN), the controller, a client appliance, or a second client.

16. The method of claim 1, comprising building the profile by identifying user access patterns.

17. The method of claim 1, comprising configuring, by the user, the profile.

18. The method of claim 1, comprising maintaining, by a client appliance, the profile of the client on the local network, and reporting the profile to the controller.

19. The method of claim 1, comprising querying, by the client or a client appliance, the controller for any new content objects corresponding to the profile.

20. The method of claim 1, comprising identifying the resource via the profile by using one or more of the following:

a uniform resource identifier, a uniform resource locator, an object type, an object size, a time stamp associated with a uniform resource locator, and a frequency of access.

21. A controller device for delivering a content object to a client for precaching, the controller device comprising:

a memory; and

a processor configured to receive from a client a profile maintained by the client, the client comprising an end node of a local network and having a browser operated by the user, the profile identifying a resource that may be requested by the user based on previous access patterns of the user via the client;

wherein the processor is configured to determine that a content object stored on a content server corresponds to the resource identified by the profile; and

wherein the processor is configured to transmit to the client a message comprising a command that the client executes to download the content object from a location identified by the message.

22. The controller device of claim 21, wherein the processor further configured to schedule a download of the content object to the client based on network information.

23. The controller device of claim 22, wherein the processor is further configured to determine a schedule for downloading the content object based on one or more of the following network information:

network topology, bandwidth, delay, congestion and utilization.

24. The controller device of claim 21, wherein the processor is further configured to search a database of profiles to determine a set of one or more clients having profiles corresponding to the content object.

25. The controller device of claim 21, wherein the processor is further configured to transmit the message to the client according to a download schedule.

26. The controller device of claim 21, wherein the processor is further configured to transmit a request to download the content object from the location, and storing, by the client, the downloaded content object to a cache.

27. The controller device of claim 26, wherein the processor is further configured to intercept a request for the content object, and responding to the request with the downloaded content object from the cache.

28. The controller device of claim 21, wherein the processor is further configured to transmit the request prior to the user requesting the content object from the content server.

29. The controller device of claim 21, wherein the processor is further configured to crawl content of the content server to identify the one or more content objects.

30. The controller device of claim 21, wherein the processor is further configured to receive a report from the content server identifying the content object.

31. The controller device of claim 21, wherein the processor is further configured to receive from a server appliance a report identifying the content object, the server appliance crawling content of the content server.

32. The controller device of claim 21, wherein the processor is further configured to intercept a request for the content object from a second client to the content server on a wide area network (WAN), and transmitting a second message to the second client to download the content object from the first client.

33. The controller device of claim 21, wherein the location comprises one of a content server on a wide area network (WAN), the controller, a client appliance, or a second client.

34. The controller device of claim 21, wherein the processor is further configured to receive from one of a client or a client appliance a query for any new content objects corresponding to the profile.

35. The controller device of claim 21, wherein the profile comprises one or more of the following:

a uniform resource identifier, an object type, an object size, a time stamp associated with a uniform resource locator, and a frequency of access.