CDN traffic management in the cloud

• US 9,374,276 B2
• Filed: 11/01/2012
• Issued: 06/21/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Homoiu, Octavian, Batrouni, Marwan, Zions, Jason Drew
• Primary Examiner(s): Burgess, Glenton B
• Assistant Examiner(s): Doan, Tan
• Application Number:
  US13/666,651
• Publication Number:
  US 20140122698A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,328 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224, 709/226
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/145 Payments according to the detected use or quantity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/726 Reserving resources in multiple paths to be used simultaneously by balancing the load H04L47/125
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/83 based on usage prediction
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/566 Grouping or aggregating service requests, e.g. for unified processing

Abstract

Embodiments include determining attributes of a property using an incubation pool. An incubation period is identified based on estimated attributes for the property, and based on rules that define a minimum and a maximum incubation time. The property is added to the incubation pool, and load and patterns for the property are analyzed. A load size and/or a traffic type for the property is identified based on the incubation. Embodiments also include offloading traffic within a CDN. A load balancer agent determines that traffic at an edge data center should be offloaded to the other edge data centers. The load balancer agent sends a request, including a determined priority level. The load balancer agent receives one or more replies indicating that resources are available for use. The load balancer agent sorts the replies and offloads traffic to at least one edge data center.

Claims

1. At a computer system including one or more processors and system memory, a method for determining one or more attributes of a property using an incubation pool, the method comprising:

receiving user input from a customer specifying a property that is requested to be on-boarded to a content delivery network (CDN);

based at least on receiving the user input from the customer specifying the property that is requested to be on-boarded to the CDN, prompting the customer for one or more attributes for the property, including prompting the customer for one or both of the customer'"'"'s estimate of a load size for the property, and the customer'"'"'s estimate of a traffic type for the property;

based at least on prompting the customer for the one or more attributes for the property, receiving one or both of the customer'"'"'s estimate of the load size for the property and the customer'"'"'s estimate of the traffic type for the property;

determining an incubation period for keeping the property in an incubation pool, the incubation period being based on one or both of the customer'"'"'s estimate of the load size for the property and the customer'"'"'s estimate of the traffic type for the property, the incubation period being adjusted based on a customer truth index (CTI) for the customer, the CTI indicating a level of trust of the customer'"'"'s estimates, the incubation period being adjusted toward a lower incubation time when the CTI indicates a high level of trust of the customer'"'"'s estimates, and the incubation period being adjusted toward a higher incubation time when the CTI indicates a low level of trust of the customer'"'"'s estimates;

adding the property to the incubation pool, including allocating one or more server resources of the incubation pool to the property;

analyzing load and traffic patterns for the property for the determined incubation period;

determining one or both of a calculated load size for the property and a calculated traffic type for the property based on adding the property to the incubation pool; and

adjusting the CTI for the customer based on one or both of how close the customer'"'"'s estimate of the load size for the property matches the calculated load size for the property, and based on based on how close the customer'"'"'s estimate of the traffic type for the property matches the calculated traffic type for the property.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein adjusting the CTI includes calculating a weighted average relating to how close the customer'"'"'s estimate of the load size for the property matches the calculated load size for the property, or based on how close the customer'"'"'s estimate of the traffic type for the property matches the calculated traffic type for the property.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

applying an induced stress load on the property which the property is added to the incubation pool.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the property exceeds the one or more allocated server resources, and allocating one or more additional resources to the property.

5. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein allocating one or more additional resources to the property comprises allocating one or more additional resources from the incubation pool.

6. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein allocating one or more additional resources to the property comprises allocating one or more additional resources from another incubation pool.

7. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein allocating one or more additional resources to the property comprises allocating one or more additional resources from a non-incubation pool.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

determining that additional information about the property is needed; and

extending the incubation period.

9. A computer system, comprising:

one or more processors;

system memory; and

one or more computer-readable storage media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that are executed executable by the one or more processors, and that configure the computer system to determine one or more attributes of a property using an incubation pool, including computer-executable instructions that configure the computer system to perform at least the following;

identify a property that is to be on-boarded to a content delivery network (CDN);

prompt a customer for one or more attributes for the property, including prompting the customer for one or both of the customer'"'"'s estimate of a load size for the property, and the customer'"'"'s estimate of a traffic type for the property;

based at least on prompting the customer for the one or more attributes for the property, receive one or both of the customer'"'"'s estimate of the load size for the property and the customer'"'"'s estimate of the traffic type for the property;

determine an incubation period for keeping the property in an incubation pool, the incubation period being based on one or both of the customer'"'"'s estimate of the load size for the property and the customer'"'"'s estimate of the traffic type for the property, the incubation period being adjusted based on a customer truth index (CTI) for the customer, the CTI indicating a level of trust of the customer'"'"'s estimates, the incubation period being adjusted toward a lower incubation time when the CTI indicates a high level of trust of the customer'"'"'s estimates, and the incubation period being adjusted toward a higher incubation time when the CTI indicates a low level of trust of the customer'"'"'s estimates;

add the property to the incubation pool, including allocating one or more server resources of the incubation pool to the property;

analyze load and traffic patterns for the property for the determined incubation period;

determine one or both of a calculated load size for that property and a calculated traffic type for the property based incubating the property; and

adjust the CTI for the customer based on one or both of how close the customer'"'"'s estimate of the load size for the property matches the calculated load size for the property, and based on based on how close the customer'"'"'s estimate of the traffic type for the property matches the calculated traffic type for the property.

10. The computer system as recited in claim 9, wherein the computer-executable instructions that configure the computer system to adjust the CTI include computer-executable instructions that configure the computer system to calculate a weighted average relating to how close the customer'"'"'s estimate of the load size for the property matches the calculated load size for the property, or based on how close the customer'"'"'s estimate of the traffic type for the property matches the calculated traffic type for the property.

11. The computer system as recited in claim 9, also including computer-executable instructions that configure the computer system to:

apply an induced stress load on the property which the property is added to the incubation pool.

12. The computer system as recited in claim 9, also including computer-executable instructions that configure the computer system to:

determine that the property exceeds the one or more allocated server resources, and allocating one or more additional resources to the property.

13. The computer system as recited in claim 12, wherein the computer-executable instructions that configure the computer system to allocate one or more additional resources to the property include computer-executable instructions that configure the computer system to allocate one or more additional resources from the incubation pool.

14. The computer system as recited in claim 12, wherein the computer-executable instructions that configure the computer system to allocate one or more additional resources to the property include computer-executable instructions that configure the computer system to allocate one or more additional resources from another incubation pool.

15. The computer system as recited in claim 12, wherein the computer-executable instructions that configure the computer system to allocate one or more additional resources to the property include computer-executable instructions that configure the computer system to allocate one or more additional resources from a non-incubation pool.

16. The computer system as recited in claim 9, also including computer-executable instructions that configure the computer system to:

determine that additional information about the property is needed; and

extend the incubation period.

17. A computer program product comprising one or more hardware storage devices having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that are executable by one or more processors of a computer system, and that configure the computer system to determine one or more attributes of a property using an incubation pool, including computer-executable instructions that configure the computer system to perform at least the following:

receive user input from a customer specifying a property that is requested to be on-boarded to a content delivery network (CDN);

based at least on receiving the user input from the customer specifying the property that is requested to be on-boarded to the CDN, identify one or more attributes for the property, including receiving one or both of the customer'"'"'s estimate of a load size for the property, and the customer'"'"'s estimate of a traffic type for the property;

determine an incubation period for keeping the property in an incubation pool, the incubation period being based on one or both of the customer'"'"'s estimate of the load size for the property and the customer'"'"'s estimate of the traffic type for the property, the incubation period being adjusted based on a customer truth index (CTI) for the customer, the CTI indicating a level of trust of the customer'"'"'s estimates, the incubation period being adjusted toward a lower incubation time when the CTI indicates a high level of trust of the customer'"'"'s estimates, and the incubation period being adjusted toward a higher incubation time when the CTI indicates a low level of trust of the customer'"'"'s estimates;

add the property to the incubation pool, including allocating one or more server resources of the incubation pool to the property;

analyze load and traffic patterns for the property for the determined incubation period;

determine one or both of a calculated load size for that property and a calculated traffic type for the property based incubating the property; and

adjust the CTI for the customer based on one or both of how close the customer'"'"'s estimate of the load size for the property matches the calculated load size for the property, and based on based on how close the customer'"'"'s estimate of the traffic type for the property matches the calculated traffic type for the property.

18. The computer program product as recited in claim 17, wherein the computer-executable instructions that configure the computer system to adjust the CTI include computer-executable instructions that configure the computer system to calculate a weighted average relating to how close the customer'"'"'s estimate of the load size for the property matches the calculated load size for the property, or based on how close the customer'"'"'s estimate of the traffic type for the property matches the calculated traffic type for the property.

19. The computer program product as recited in claim 17, also including computer-executable instructions that configure the computer system to:

apply an induced stress load on the property which the property is added to the incubation pool.

20. The computer program product as recited in claim 17, also including computer-executable instructions that configure the computer system to:

determine that the property exceeds the one or more allocated server resources, and allocating one or more additional resources to the property.