Content delivery network referral

• US 8,909,736 B1
• Filed: 07/12/2012
• Issued: 12/09/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/12/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Inventors: Bosch, Hendrikus G. P., Medved, Jan, Ward, David, Gredler, Hannes, Ferguson, Scott
• Primary Examiner(s): Katsikis, Kostas
• Application Number:
  US13/547,917
• Time in Patent Office: 880 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217, 709/218, 709/230, 709/238
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1093 Some peer nodes performing special functions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/63 Control signaling related to video distribution between client, server and network components; Network processes for video distribution between server and clients or between remote clients, e.g. transmitting basic layer and enhancement layers over different transmission paths, setting up a peer-to-peer communication via Internet between remote STB's; Communication protocols; Addressing real-time session protocols H04L65/1101; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104

Abstract

In general, techniques are described for managing content request referrals by keying content requests to a composite key data structure that maps end-user address prefixes and content identifiers to content delivery network servers of downstream CDNs. In one example, a CDN exchange includes a communication module to receive first network prefixes and first content identifiers from a first secondary content delivery network and to receive second network prefixes and second content identifiers from a second secondary content delivery network. A request router of the CDN exchange redirects the content request to the first secondary content delivery network or to the second secondary content delivery network according to a network address of the end user device and a content identifier for the content request.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

generating, by a content delivery network exchange, an aggregate content delivery network referral table from first and second network address prefixes and first and second content identifiers, wherein one or more entries of the aggregate content delivery network referral table each comprises a composite key of a network address prefix from the first and second network address prefixes and a content identifier from the first and second content identifiers, wherein the first network address prefixes and first content identifiers refer to a first secondary content delivery network for a primary content delivery network, and wherein the second network address prefixes and second content identifiers refer to a second secondary content delivery network for the primary content delivery network;

sending, from the content delivery network exchange to the primary content delivery network, the aggregate content delivery network referral table to cause the primary content delivery network to direct content requests that match any of the entries of the aggregate content delivery network referral table to the content delivery network exchange;

receiving, by the content delivery network exchange from the primary content delivery network, a content request originated by an end user device;

redirecting, by the content delivery network exchange, the content request to the first secondary content delivery network when a network address of the end user device matches one of the first network address prefixes and a content identifier for the content request matches one of the first content identifiers; and

redirecting, by the content delivery network exchange, the content request to the second secondary content delivery network when the network address of the end user device matches one of the second network address prefixes and the content identifier for the content request matches one of the second content identifiers.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating, by the content delivery network exchange, a content delivery network referral table from the first and second network address prefixes and the first and second content identifiers, wherein one or more entries of the content delivery network referral table each comprises a composite key of a network address prefix and a content identifier and further comprises a referred-to entity,

wherein redirecting the content request comprises matching the network address of the end user device and the content identifier for the content request to one of the entries of the content delivery network referable table, wherein redirecting the content request comprises identifying the first secondary content delivery network or the second secondary content delivery network as the referred-to entity in the matching entry.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

executing an application by a network device of the content delivery network exchange;

executing, by the network device, a routing protocol with a routing protocol process to exchange routing protocol advertisements with a peer network device in accordance with the routing protocol;

invoking an interface of the routing protocol process with the application to dynamically extend the routing protocol process to register transmit and receive interfaces for a code point of the routing protocol,

wherein executing the routing protocol to exchange routing protocol advertisements with the peer network device comprises transmitting and receiving routing protocol advertisements with the transmit and receive interfaces.

4. The method of claim 1,

wherein the content delivery network exchange comprises a request router device, and

wherein receiving the content request comprises receiving the content request with the request router device.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating an internal content delivery network referral table from the first and second network address prefixes and the first and second content identifiers, wherein each entry of the internal content delivery network referral table comprises a composite key of a network address prefix and a content identifier and further comprises a referred-to entity,

wherein the referred-to entity comprises one of the first secondary content delivery network and the second secondary content delivery network.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the content delivery network exchange, identifiers for one or more surrogates from the first secondary content delivery network, wherein the one or more surrogates are configured to serve content identified by the first content identifiers to the first network address prefixes,

wherein redirecting the content request to the first secondary content delivery network comprises selecting, by the content delivery network exchange, one of the surrogates and redirecting the content request to the selected surrogate.

7. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

invoking the interface of the routing protocol process with the application to inject application data into the routing protocol,

wherein transmitting routing protocol advertisements with the transmit interface comprises transmitting routing protocol advertisements that comprise the application data and further comprise an application identifier associated with the transmit interface.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein the routing protocol comprises a border gateway protocol.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

invoking the interface of the routing protocol process with the application to register a callback for the receive interface,

wherein receiving routing protocol advertisements with the receive interface comprises receiving routing protocol advertisements that comprise the application data and further comprise an application identifier associated with the receive interface; and

invoking the callback to send the application data to the application.

10. The method of claim 7,

wherein the application data comprises the aggregate content delivery network referral table.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the application data comprises the first network address prefixes and the first content identifiers.

12. A content delivery network interconnection device comprising:

a control unit comprising a processor;

an application executing on the control unit;

a routing protocol process, executing on the control unit, to execute a routing protocol to exchange routing protocol advertisements with a peer network device of one of a content delivery network exchange or a primary content delivery network in accordance with the routing protocol;

an interface of the routing protocol process,

wherein the application invokes the interface to dynamically extend the routing protocol process to register transmit and receive interfaces for a code point of the routing protocol, and

wherein the application invokes the interface of the routing protocol process to receive, from a content delivery network exchange, an aggregate content delivery network referral table, the aggregate content delivery network referral table comprising one or more entries each comprising a composite key of a network address prefix from first and second network address prefixes and a content identifier from first and second content identifiers, wherein the first network address prefixes and first content identifiers refer to a first secondary content delivery network for a primary content delivery network, and wherein the second network address prefixes and second content identifiers refer to a second secondary content delivery network for the primary content delivery network,

wherein the application, in response to receiving a content request specifying a network address and a content identifier that match a composite key of an entry of the one or more entries of the aggregate content delivery network referral table, redirects the content request to the content delivery network exchange.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions for causing one or more programmable processors to:

generate, by a content delivery network exchange, an aggregate content delivery network referral table from first and second network address prefixes and first and second content identifiers, wherein one or more entries of the aggregate content delivery network referral table each comprises a composite key of a network address prefix from the first and second network address prefixes and a content identifier from the first and second content identifiers,

wherein the first network address prefixes and first content identifiers refer to a first secondary content delivery network for a primary content delivery network, and

wherein the second network address prefixes and second content identifiers refer to a second secondary content delivery network for the primary content delivery network;

send, from the content delivery network exchange to the primary content delivery network, the aggregate content delivery network referral table to cause the primary content delivery network to direct content requests that match any of the entries of the aggregate content delivery network referral table to the content delivery network exchange;

receive, by the content delivery network exchange from the primary content delivery network, a content request originated by an end user device;

redirect, by the content delivery network exchange, the content request to the first secondary content delivery network when a network address of the end user device matches one of the first network address prefixes and a content identifier for the content request matches one of the first content identifiers; and

redirect, by the content delivery network exchange, the content request to the second secondary content delivery network when the network address of the end user device matches one of the second network address prefixes and the content identifier for the content request matches one of the second content identifiers.

14. A content delivery network exchange device comprising:

a control unit comprising a processor;

an aggregation module executed by the control unit to generate an aggregate content delivery network referral table from first and second network address prefixes and first and second content identifiers, wherein one or more entries of the aggregate content delivery network referral table each comprises a composite key of a network address prefix from the first and second network address prefixes and a content identifier from the first and second content identifiers,

wherein the first network address prefixes and first content identifiers refer to a first secondary content delivery network for a primary content delivery network, and

wherein the second network address prefixes and second content identifiers refer to a second secondary content delivery network for the primary content delivery network;

a communication module executed by the control unit to send, to the primary content delivery network, the aggregate content delivery network referral table to cause the primary content delivery network to direct content requests that match any of the entries of the aggregate content delivery network referral table to the content delivery network exchange; and

a request router executed by the control unit to receive, from the primary content delivery network, a content request originated by an end user device,

wherein the request router redirects the content request to the first secondary content delivery network when a network address of the end user device matches one of the first network address prefixes and a content identifier for the content request matches one of the first content identifiers, and

wherein the request router redirects the content request to the second secondary content delivery network when the network address of the end user device matches one of the second network address prefixes and the content identifier for the content request matches one of the second content identifiers.

15. The content delivery network exchange of claim 14, further comprising:

a content delivery network referral table comprising the first and second network address prefixes and the first and second content identifiers, wherein one or more entries of the content delivery network referral table each comprises a composite key of a network address prefix and a content identifier and further comprises a referred-to entity,

wherein to redirect the content request the request router matches the network address of the end user device and the content identifier for the content request to one of the entries of the content delivery network referable table and by identifying the first secondary content delivery network or the second secondary content delivery network as the referred-to entity in the matching entry.

16. The content delivery network exchange of claim 14, further comprising:

an application executing on the control unit;

a routing protocol process, executing on the control unit, to execute a routing protocol to exchange routing protocol advertisements with a peer network device in accordance with the routing protocol;

an interface of the routing protocol process,

wherein the application invokes the interface to dynamically extend the routing protocol process to register transmit and receive interfaces for a code point of the routing protocol,

wherein executing the routing protocol to exchange routing protocol advertisements with the peer network device comprises transmitting and receiving routing protocol advertisements with the transmit and receive interfaces.

17. The content delivery network exchange of claim 14,

wherein the communication module receives the content request from an upstream device of the primary content delivery network exchange.

18. The content delivery network exchange of claim 14,

wherein the aggregation module generates an internal content delivery network referral table from the first and second network address prefixes and the first and second content identifiers, wherein each entry of the internal content delivery network referral table comprises a composite key of a network address prefix and a content identifier and further comprises a referred-to entity, and wherein the referred-to entity comprises one of the first secondary content delivery network and the second secondary content delivery network.

19. The content delivery network exchange of claim 14, further comprising:

wherein the communication module receives identifiers for one or more surrogates from the first secondary content delivery network, wherein the one or more surrogates are configured to serve content identified by the first content identifiers to the first network address prefixes,

wherein the request router redirects the content request to the first secondary content delivery network by selecting one of the surrogates and redirecting the content request to the selected surrogate.

20. The content delivery network exchange of claim 16, further comprising:

wherein the application invokes the interface of the routing protocol process to inject application data into the routing protocol,

wherein the routing protocol process transmits routing protocol advertisements with the transmit interface by transmitting routing protocol advertisements that comprise the application data and further comprise an application identifier associated with the transmit interface.

21. The content delivery network exchange of claim 16, wherein the routing protocol comprises a border gateway protocol.

22. The content delivery network exchange of claim 20,

wherein the application invokes the interface of the routing protocol process to register a callback for the receive interface,

wherein the routing protocol process receives routing protocol advertisements with the receive interface by receiving routing protocol advertisements that comprise the application data and further comprise an application identifier associated with the receive interface, and

wherein the routing protocol process invokes the callback to send the application data to the application.

23. The content delivery network exchange of claim 20,

wherein the application data comprises the aggregate content delivery network referral table.

24. The content delivery network exchange of claim 22, wherein the application data comprises the first network address prefixes and the first content identifiers.