Transparently cached network resources

• US 9,356,824 B1
• Filed: 09/29/2006
• Issued: 05/31/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: F5 Networks, Inc. (F5 Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: F5 Networks, Inc. (F5 Incorporated)
• Inventors: Khanal, Bhushan P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sison, June
• Assistant Examiner(s): Cooney, Adam
• Application Number:
  US11/537,474
• Time in Patent Office: 3,532 Days
• Field of Search: 709/201
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/45 Network directories; Name-to-address mapping
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/756 adapting media to device capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/762 at the source reformatting of additional data in video distribution servers H04N21/2355

Abstract

A method, system, and apparatus are directed towards managing content over a network. A request from a requestor for a resource is received over the network. The request may include a request for resource identified by a Network Resource Identifier (NRI). The request may also include Systems Interconnection (OSI) level 2-7 data. Characteristics of the requestor are determined based on the request. The characteristics are mapped onto a label. A unique key is generated based on the request, the characteristics, and/or the label. A version of the resource to cache is determined based on the request, the characteristics, the label, and/or the unique key. The version of the resource is cached based on the unique key.

Claims

1. A device that manages data over a network, comprising:

a network communication component that sends or receives content over the network, wherein the network communication component is stored in a memory; and

a processor that performs one or more actions involving the content, including;

receiving a first request for the content from a first requestor;

determining characteristics of the first requestor that enable the first requestor to consume the content based in part on determined characteristics of the first request;

generating a particular version of the content based on the determined characteristics of the first requestor;

obtaining a resource version key associated with the particular version of the content based on having a network resource identifier that identifies an original location of the content and at least one label that identifies one or more of the determined characteristics of the first request for content delivery conditions that enable the first requestor of the content to consume the particular version of the content that is associated with the resource version key;

executing at least one of a plurality of pre-determined scripts to map a category onto the at least one label based on one or more of the determined characteristics of the first request;

mapping the at least one label having a mapped category to a plurality of content delivery conditions that collapse a plurality of determined characteristics of the first request onto the at least one label and a plurality of resource version keys, wherein the at least one mapped label reduces the number of associations between the resource version keys and the particular versions of the content;

generating a unique key based on the network resource identifier and at least one mapped label;

caching the particular version of the content based on the unique key;

receiving a second request for the content from a second requestor;

determining that one or more content delivery conditions are satisfied based on a match between the one or more content delivery conditions and one or more characteristics of the second requestor determined from an analysis of characteristics of the second request;

modifying the second request by adding one or more of the at least one labels to the second request based on the one or more content delivery conditions, wherein each of the one or more labels is associated with a range of content delivery conditions that are part of a group; and

employing the unique key to provide the cached particular version of the content for consumption by the second requestor when the one or more content delivery conditions described by the added labels matches the corresponding content delivery characteristics of the second requestor, wherein the cached particular version of the content is a modified version of the content that is modified based on the one or more content delivery conditions.

2. The device according to claim 1, wherein the one or more content delivery conditions further comprise at least one of one or more requestor capabilities, one or more network conditions existing when the associated content is requested or provided, or any other type of condition that may affect content delivery to a particular requestor.

3. The device according to claim 2, wherein the one or more requestor capabilities comprise an ability to receive high resolution video, graphics content, multimedia content, or text-only content.

4. The device according to claim 2, wherein the one or more network conditions comprise network latency, bandwidth, or throughput.

5. The device according to claim 1, wherein any other type of condition that affects content delivery to the particular requestor comprises a particular geographical location of at least one of the first requestor and the second requestor, or a particular network location of at least one of the first requestor and the second requestor.

6. The device according to claim 1, wherein the device comprises a traffic management device.

7. A device that manages data over a network, comprising:

a network communication component that sends or receives content over the network, wherein the network communication component is stored in a memory; and

a processor that performs one or more actions involving the content, including;

receiving a first request for content from a first requestor;

determining characteristics of the first requestor that enable the first requestor to consume the content based in part on determined characteristics of the first request;

generating a particular version of the content based on the characteristics of the first requestor;

generating a resource version key corresponding to the particular version of the

requested content based on having a network resource identifier (NRI) that identifies an original location of the requested content at least one label that identifies one or more existing characteristics of the first request for content delivery conditions that enables a particular requestor of the requested content to consume the particular version of the requested content that corresponds to the resource version key;

executing at least one of a plurality of pre-determined scripts to map a category onto the at least one label based on one or more of the determined characteristics of the first request;

mapping the at least one label having a mapped category to a plurality of content delivery conditions that collapse a plurality of determined characteristics of the first request onto the at least one label and a plurality of resource version keys, wherein the at least one mapped label reduces the number of associations between the resource version keys and the particular versions of the content;

generating a unique key based on the network resource identifier and at least one mapped label;

caching the particular version of the content based on the resource version key;

receiving at least one subsequent content request for the content from a second requestor;

determining that one or more content delivery conditions are satisfied based on a match between the one or more content delivery conditions and one or more characteristics of the second requestor determined from an analysis of the characteristics of the subsequent content request;

modifying the second request by adding one or more of the at least one labels to the second request based on the one or more content delivery conditions, wherein each of the one or more labels is associated with a range of content delivery conditions that are part of a group; and

employing the unique key to provide the cached particular version of the content for consumption by the second requestor when the one or more content delivery conditions described by the added labels matches the corresponding content delivery characteristics of the second requestor, wherein the cached particular version of the content is a modified version of the content that is modified based on the one or more content delivery conditions.

8. The device according to claim 7, wherein one or more different versions of the requested content are stored in memory directly in the device or elsewhere.

9. The device according to claim 7, wherein the one or more actions performed by the processor further comprise:

generating one or more different resource version keys with the same network resource identifier but at least one different label; and

obtaining one or more different versions of the requested content corresponding to the different content delivery conditions identified by the at least one different label.

10. The device according to claim 7, wherein the one or more actions performed by the processor further comprise:

generating one or more different versions of the requested content for consumption by at least one of the first and the second requestors when different content delivery conditions exist as identified by at least one different label included in one or more different resource version keys having the same network resource identifier.

11. The device according to claim 7, wherein the one or more content delivery conditions further comprise at least one of one or more requestor capabilities, one or more network conditions existing when the associated content is requested or provided, or any other type of condition that affects content delivery to a particular requestor.

12. The device according to claim 11, wherein the one or more requestor capabilities comprise an ability to receive high resolution video, graphics content, multimedia content, or text-only content.

13. The device according to claim 11, wherein the one or more network conditions comprise network latency, bandwidth, or throughput.

14. The device according to claim 7, wherein any other type of condition that affects content delivery to a particular requestor comprises a particular geographical location of at least one of the first requestor and the second requestor, or a particular network location of at least one of the first requestor and the second requestor.

15. The device according to claim 7, wherein the device comprises a traffic management device.

16. The device according to claim 7, wherein the NRI includes a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI).

17. The device according to claim 7, wherein the one or more existing content delivery conditions further comprises:

at least one of a Maximum Segment Size (MSS), a Round Trip Time (RTT), a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) header information, a Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) header information, or a network connection speed.

18. The device according to claim 7, wherein the one or more existing content delivery conditions further comprises, at least one characteristic determined by performing an analysis of at least one of layers 2-7 of the OSI layered protocol of the request.

19. The device according to claim 7, wherein the one or more actions performed by the processor further comprise:

determining the one or more existing content delivery conditions based on an access right associated with a user of the device, a characteristic of the user of the device, or a capability of the device.

20. A method of managing content over a network between a requestor device and at least one requestee device, comprising:

receiving from the requestor device a first request for a resource, wherein the first request includes a Network Resource Identifier (NRI);

determining a plurality of characteristics of the first request that includes at least one characteristic of the requestor device that is determined from an analysis of the first request that enables the requestor to consume the resource;

determining a label associated with the plurality of characteristics of the request;

generating a resource version key by extending the NRI with the label;

executing at least one of a plurality of pre-determined scripts to map a category onto the at least one label based on one or more of the determined characteristics of the first request;

mapping the at least one label having a mapped category to a plurality of content delivery conditions that collapse a plurality of determined characteristics of the first request onto the at least one label and a plurality of resource version keys, wherein the at least one mapped label reduces the number of associations between the resource version keys and the particular versions of the content;

generating a unique key based on the network resource identifier and at least one mapped label, wherein each of the at least one labels is associated with a range of content delivery conditions that are part of a group;

retrieving a version of the resource based on the request, wherein the version of the resource is a modified version based on the plurality of characteristics of the request; and

employing the unique key to cache the version of the resource.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein generating the unique key further comprises applying at least one of hash-coding, semi-random coding, or Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) coding to the at least one characteristic and the NRI.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the request includes Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) header information or Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) header information.

23. The method of claim 20, further comprising determining the version of the resource to cache, including transcoding the resource into the version of the resource based on the plurality of characteristics of the request.

24. The method of claim 20, wherein retrieving the version of the resource, further comprises:

employing the plurality of characteristics to select one of the requestee device from which to retrieve the resource.

25. The method of claim 20, wherein the label is configured to map a range of the at least one characteristic into a category.

26. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

modifying the retrieved resource based on the plurality of characteristics prior to providing the resource to the requestor device.

27. The method of claim 20, wherein the request comprises:

at least one of a specification of a user agent, an indicator that identifies that the requestor is capable of accepting encoded data, a protocol version, a request method, or an indicator that identifies that the requestor is capable of using a secure protocol.