Physical location influenced caching

• US 9,967,361 B2
• Filed: 09/14/2015
• Issued: 05/08/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Velummylum, Piragash, Gabrielson, Jacob, Marshall, Bradley Eugene, Maniscalco, Nicholas J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chan, Wing F
• Assistant Examiner(s): KRISHNAN, RAJESHWARI
• Application Number:
  US14/853,902
• Publication Number:
  US 20160072911A1
• Time in Patent Office: 967 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/062 related to network traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5681 Pre-fetching or pre-delivering data based on network characteristics
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5682 Policies or rules for updating, deleting or replacing the stored data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23106 involving caching operations prefetching while addressing of a memory level in which the access to the desired data or data block requires associative addressing means within memory systems or architectures G06F12/0862; caching at an intermediate stage in a data network H04L67/568
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2402 Monitoring of the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. bandwidth available traffic monitoring in data switching networks H04L43/00; monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/251 Learning process for intelligent management, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies details of learning user preferences for the retrieval of video data in a video database G06F16/739; computer systems using learning methods G06N3/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25841 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; arrangements for identifying locations of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/51; location of the user terminal in data switching networks H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6131 involving transmission via a mobile phone network wireless downlink channel access H04W74/006
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/025 using location based information parameters

Abstract

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to the caching of network content requested by a user of a client computing device during a browsing session. The client computing device'"'"'s various networks and varying bandwidth can have a negative impact on the browsing session. Caching of network content can enhance performance. For example, network content can be cached on a wireless mobile device so that it is available on the device at a further time without requiring significant bandwidth or, in some cases, even a network connection. Predicting the bandwidth at the time the cached content will be accessed can allow customized caching and an improved user experience.

Claims

1. A system for caching network content, the system comprising:

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

a network computing component comprising computing hardware configured to execute the specific computer-executable instructions to;

receive, from a client computing device configured with a wireless network connection, a request for a web page;

predict a first web page that will be requested in the future, the prediction based at least in part on the received web page request; and

cache the first web page according to a first caching policy, wherein the first caching policy specifies caching the first web page on the data store;

receive a plurality of metrics from the client computing device, wherein the plurality of metrics comprises at least a location and a direction of travel of the client computing device;

determine a current bandwidth of the client computing device;

determine a future bandwidth of the client computing device based at least in part on the location and the direction of travel of the client computing device;

compare the current bandwidth and the future bandwidth to determine whether a difference exceeds a threshold;

in response to determining that the difference exceeds the threshold, transmit the first web page to the client computing device according to a second caching policy, wherein the second caching policy specifies caching the first web page on the client computing device; and

cause the first web page to be cached on the client computing device according to the second caching policy.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the comparison between the current bandwidth and the future bandwidth is indicative that the future bandwidth is less than the current bandwidth, and wherein the second caching policy further specifies transmitting the first web page at a time corresponding to availability of the current bandwidth.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the comparison between the current bandwidth and the future bandwidth is indicative that the future bandwidth is greater than the current bandwidth, and wherein the second caching policy further specifies transmitting the first web page at a future time corresponding to availability of the future bandwidth.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the network computing device is further configured to:

predict a second web page that will be requested in the future; and

transmit the second web page to the client computing device according to a specified caching in the second caching policy, based on a determination that the second caching policy prioritizes caching the second web page.

5. Non-transitory physical computer storage comprising instructions stored therein for implementing, by a network computing device, operations for caching network content, the operations comprising:

establishing a network connection with a client computing device, wherein the network connection is characterized by a first network bandwidth;

determining a first caching policy associated with a first quantity of network content to cache, wherein determining the first caching policy is based at least in part on the first network bandwidth;

identifying predicted network content, wherein the predicted network content is predicted to be accessed by the client computing device at a future time, and wherein the predicted network content is based at least in part on a network content request received from the client computing device;

causing a first subset of the predicted network content to be cached according to the first caching policy;

analyzing a plurality of metrics to determine a second network bandwidth, the plurality of metrics including a location and a direction of travel of the client computing device, wherein the network connection of the client computing device is characterized by the second network bandwidth at the future time;

comparing the first network bandwidth to the second network bandwidth;

determining a second caching policy that is associated with a second quantity of network content to cache, and wherein determining the second caching policy is based at least in part on comparing the first network bandwidth to the second network bandwidth;

processing, according to the second caching policy, the first subset of the predicted network content cached under the first caching policy; and

causing a second subset of the predicted network content to be cached according to the second caching policy.

6. The non-transitory computer storage of claim 5, wherein the comparison between the first network bandwidth and the second network bandwidth is indicative that the first network bandwidth is greater than the second network bandwidth, and wherein processing the first subset of the predicted network content according to the second caching policy comprises causing at least the first subset of the predicted network content to be cached.

7. The non-transitory computer storage of claim 5, wherein the first caching policy specifies caching by the network computing device, and wherein the second caching policy specifies caching by the client computing device.

8. The non-transitory computer storage of claim 5, wherein the comparison between the first network bandwidth and the second network bandwidth is indicative that the first network bandwidth is greater than the second network bandwidth, and wherein determining the second caching policy comprises determining a policy that specifies a shorter cache expiry time than the first caching policy.

9. The non-transitory computer storage of claim 5, wherein the comparison between the first network bandwidth and the second network bandwidth is indicative that the first network bandwidth is less than the second network bandwidth, and wherein determining the second caching policy comprises determining a policy that specifies a longer cache expiry time than the first caching policy.

10. The non-transitory computer storage of claim 5, the operations further comprising:

determining, for each of a plurality of content items within the predicted network content, a respective probability that the client computing device will request the content item;

identifying content items having determined probabilities exceeding a threshold to form the first subset of the predicted network content; and

identifying content items having determined probabilities below the threshold to form the second subset of the predicted network content.

11. A computer-implemented method for caching network content, executed by a network computing device, the method comprising:

characterizing a network connection with a client computing device, the network connection characterized as having a first bandwidth;

caching a first subset of network content on at least one of the network computing device or the client computing device according to a first caching policy, wherein the network content is predicted to be accessed by the client computing device at a future time, wherein the first caching policy is associated with the first subset of network content, and wherein the first caching policy is selected based, at least in part, on the characterized first bandwidth;

analyzing a plurality of metrics to determine a second bandwidth, wherein the plurality of metrics comprises a location and a direction of travel of the client computing device, and wherein the network connection of the client computing device is determined to have the second bandwidth at the future time;

comparing the first bandwidth to the second bandwidth;

determining a second caching policy based at least in part on comparing the first bandwidth to the second bandwidth, wherein the second caching policy is associated with a second subset of network content; and

caching the second subset of the network content on at least one of the network computing device or the client computing device according to the second caching policy.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the first subset of network content includes at least one unsealed image, and wherein the second subset of network content includes at least one scaled image corresponding to the unsealed image.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the at least one scaled image corresponds to a display resolution of a client computing device.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the first subset of network content includes video content, and wherein the second subset of network content includes a placeholder image corresponding to the video content.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the first subset of network content comprises video content at a first compression level, and wherein the second subset of network content comprises the video content at a second compression level.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 further comprising processing the first subset of network content to generate the second subset of network content.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein processing the first subset of network content comprises scaling down the first subset of network content.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the second caching policy specifies a prioritization, and wherein the method further comprises prioritizing the first subset of network content according to the second caching policy.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 18 further comprising transmitting the first subset of the network content to a client computing device according to the prioritization specified by the second caching policy.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 18 further comprising:

transmitting one or more placeholders to the client computing device, wherein the one or more placeholders correspond to a low priority portion of the first subset of the network content.