Latency measurement in resource requests

• US 8,930,513 B1
• Filed: 09/28/2010
• Issued: 01/06/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Richardson, David R., Cormie, John, MacCarthaigh, Colm, Redman, Benjamin W. S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Jimmy H
• Application Number:
  US12/892,861
• Time in Patent Office: 1,561 Days
• Field of Search: 709/201, 709/203, 709/223, 709/217, 709/219, 709/220, 709/221, 709/238
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/173 using an interconnection network, e.g. matrix, shuffle, pyramid, star, snowflake
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23103 using load balancing strategies, e.g. by placing or distributing content on different disks, different memories or different servers storage management G06F3/0604; allocation of resources considering the load in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/505; techniques for rebalancing the load in a distributed system G06F9/5083; access to distributed or replicated servers, e.g. load balancing, in data networks H04L67/1001
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26233 involving content or additional data duration or size, e.g. length of a movie, size of an executable file
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02

Abstract

Systems and method for the management and processing of resource requests by a service provider, such as a content delivery network (“CDN”) service provider, on behalf of a content provider are provided. The CDN service provider can measure the performance associated with the delivery of resources to requesting client computing devices from various computing devices associated with the CDN service provider. In one embodiment, the CDN service provider can utilize commands responsive to an initial request for a resource that causes the requesting client computing device to transmit one or more supplemental resource requests. Information associated with the processing of the sequence of resource requests can be used to measure CDN service provider latencies.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for processing content comprising:

obtaining, by a service provider, a protocol-based request for a resource, the protocol-based request for a resource-corresponding to an embedded resource identifier, wherein the protocol-based request is generated by a client computing device responsive to obtaining originally requested content including the embedded resource identifier from the service provider;

transmitting, by the service provider, responsive protocol-based request information, wherein the responsive protocol-based request information is transmitted by a first separately identifiable component of the service provider to the client computing device;

transmitting, by the service provider, a request from the first separately identifiable component of the service provider to a second separately identifiable component of the service provider to initiate protocol-based communications with the client computing device;

transmitting, by the service provider, additional protocol-based request information, wherein the additional protocol-based request information is transmitted by the second separately identifiable component of the service provider to the client computing device responsive to the request from the first separately identifiable component of the service provider; and

determining, by the service provider, latency information corresponding to the responsive protocol-based request information transmitted by the first separately identifiable component of the service provider and the additional protocol-based request information transmitted by the second separately identifiable component of the service provider, the latency information corresponding to a communication latency between the client computing device and the first and second separately identifiable components of the service provider for the respective transmissions.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the embedded resource identifier corresponds to a uniform resource locator of the service provider.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the protocol corresponds to a hypertext transfer protocol command.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the additional protocol-based request information transmitted by second separately identifiable component of the service provider includes a termination command.

5. The method as recited in claim 4 further comprising obtaining additional protocol based request information from the client computer at the first separately identifiable component of the service provider, the additional protocol based request information from the client computer responsive to the additional protocol-based request information transmitted by the second separately identifiable component of the service provider.

6. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising obtaining, from the client computing device, latency information corresponding to the protocol-based request, the latency information corresponding to a communication latency between the client computing device and a separately identifiable component of the service provider.

7. A computer-implemented method for processing content comprising:

transmitting, by a client computing device, a protocol-based request for a resource, the protocol-based request for a resource corresponding to an embedded resource identifier, wherein the protocol-based request for the resource is received by a service provider responsive to the service provider providing originally requested content including the embedded resource identifier to the client computing device;

obtaining, by the client computing device, responsive protocol-based processing information, wherein the responsive protocol-based processing information is transmitted to the client computing device by a first identifiable component of the service provider;

obtaining, by the client computing device, responsive protocol-based processing information, wherein the responsive protocol-based processing information is transmitted to the client computing device by a second identifiable component of the service provider;

determining, by the client computing device, metric information corresponding to the received responsive protocol-based processing information from the first and second identifiable components of the service provider, the metric information corresponding to communications between the client computing device and the first and second separately identifiable components of the service provider for the received responsive protocol-based processing information; and

transmitting the metric information to the service provider.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the embedded resource identifier corresponds to a uniform resource locator of the service provider.

9. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the protocol corresponds to a hypertext transfer protocol command.

10. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the metric information corresponds to latency information between the client computing device and the first and second identifiable components of the service provider.

11. A computer-implemented system for processing content, the system comprising:

a data store configured to store computer-executable instructions; and

a hardware processor in communication with the data store, the hardware processor corresponding to a service provider and configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to at least;

obtain a protocol-based request for a resource at a first separately identifiable component of the service provider, the protocol-based request for a resource corresponding to an embedded resource identifier, wherein the protocol-based request for the resource is generated by a client computing device responsive to obtaining originally requested content including the embedded resource identifier from the service provider;

transmit responsive protocol-based request information, wherein the responsive protocol-based request information is transmitted by the first separately identifiable component of the service provider to the client computing device;

transmit a request from the first separately identifiable component of the service provider to a second separately identifiable component of the service provider to initiate protocol-based communications with the client computing device;

transmit additional protocol-based request information, wherein the additional protocol-based request information is transmitted by second separately identifiable component of the service provider to the client computing device responsive to the request from the first separately identifiable component of the service provider;

determine metric information corresponding to the responsive protocol-based request information transmitted by the first separately identifiable component of the service provider and the additional protocol-based request information transmitted by the second separately identifiable component of the service provider, the metric information corresponding to communications between the client computing device and the first and second separately identifiable components of the service provider for the responsive protocol-based request information; and

update the performance metric information according to the determined metric information.

12. The system as recited in claim 11, wherein the hardware processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to at least obtain, from the client computing device, latency information associated with the responsive protocol-based request information transmitted by the first separately identifiable component of the service provider and the additional protocol-based request information transmitted by the second separately identifiable component of the service provider, the latency information corresponding to a communication latency between the client computing device and a separately identifiable component of the service provider.

13. The system as recited in claim 11, wherein the metric information corresponds to latency information between the client computing device and the first and second separately identifiable components of the service provider.

14. The system as recited in claim 11, wherein the protocol corresponds to a hypertext transfer protocol command.

15. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein the additional protocol-based request information transmitted by the second separately identifiable component of the service provider includes a termination command.