Content distribution system for operation over an internetwork including content peering arrangements

• US 20050010653A1
• Filed: 08/05/2004
• Published: 01/13/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: FastForward Networks, Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: McCanne, Steve
• Granted Patent: US 7,734,730 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1859 adapted to provide push services, e.g. data channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1877 Measures taken prior to transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1886 with traffic restrictions for efficiency improvement, e.g. involving subnets or subdomains
• 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 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10015 Access to distributed or replicated servers, e.g. using brokers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/101 based on network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1014 based on the content of a request
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1029 using data related to the state of servers by a load balancer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1031 Controlling of the operation of servers by a load balancer, e.g. adding or removing servers that serve requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1038 Load balancing arrangements to avoid a single path through a load balancer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/288 Distributed intermediate devices, i.e. intermediate devices for interaction with other intermediate devices on the same level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/564 Enhancement of application control based on intercepted application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

In a network interconnecting a plurality of content providers and a plurality of clients, for providing content to a client, each of the plurality of content providers is coupled to at least one content distribution network of a plurality of content distribution networks, wherein the client is coupled to at least one of the plurality of content distribution networks and a request for the content is sent from the client to a redirector node that receives requests, wherein a redirector at the redirector node provides an address for a server available to serve the requested content. When the client'"'"'s content distribution network is a primary content distribution network for the content provider providing the requested content, redirecting the client to a server within the client'"'"'s content distribution network. When the client'"'"'s content distribution network is not a primary content distribution network for the content provider but the client'"'"'s content distribution network has a content peering relationship with a primary content distribution network for the content provider, redirecting the client to a server within the client'"'"'s content distribution network. When the client'"'"'s content distribution network is not a primary content distribution network for the content provider and the client'"'"'s content distribution network does not have a content peering relationship with a primary content distribution network for the content provider, redirecting the client to a server outside the client'"'"'s content distribution network. The redirecting can be done using a domain name service (DNS) server that responds to requests for domain name resolution that include metadata encoding for the content being requested and/or attributes of the resolution request other than a domain name or explicit client/redirector communication to perform the redirection.

Claims

1-19. -19. (canceled)

20. A method, in a network interconnecting a plurality of content providers and a plurality of clients, for providing content to a client, comprising:

coupling each of the plurality of content providers to at least one content distribution network of a plurality of content distribution networks, wherein the client is coupled to at least one of the plurality of content distribution networks, wherein a content distribution network comprises of a plurality of autonomous systems;

building content peering relationships among the plurality of autonomous systems, wherein a first autonomous system that enters into a content peering relationship with a second autonomous system provisions resources to serve content of content providers that are customers of the second autonomous system.

21. The method of claim 20 further comprising providing client connection information to a content provider when content is served from outside the content provider'"'"'s primary distribution network.

22. The method of claim 20 further comprising:

sending a request for the content from the client to a redirector node that receives requests, wherein a redirector at the redirector node provides the client directions to a server available to serve the requested content; and

when the client'"'"'s content distribution network is a primary content distribution network for the content provider providing the requested content, redirecting the client to a server within the client'"'"'s content distribution network.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising disseminating content routing policies to the redirectors using application-level multicast routing.

24. The method of claim 22, further comprising disseminating server load information to the redirectors using application-level multicast routing.

25. The method of claim 22, further comprising disseminating replication information to the redirectors using application-level multicast routing.

26. The method of claim 22, wherein sending the request for the content comprises sending an explicit service request to an anycast address to imply topological locality via anycast routing.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein redirection is performed based on the topological locality context.

28. The method of claim 22, further comprising using redirection in remote autonomous systems to load balance server farms in nearby autonomous systems.

29. The method of claim 20, further comprising disseminating resource availability between content distribution networks.

30. A domain name service (DNS) server that receives requests for domain name resolution and returns Internet Protocol (IP) addresses associated with domain names, comprising:

logic for accepting a resolution request that encodes for attributes of the resolution request other than a domain name; and

logic for determining an IP address based on at least the attributes of the resolution request other than the domain name.

31. A method of identifying a content server for serving content to a client in a network having a plurality of content servers capable of serving the content, the method comprising:

receiving a request for domain name resolution, the request including a domain name data element;

parsing the domain name data element to determine metadata related to the content service that sources the content;

identifying a set of target servers that match the metadata, wherein the set of target servers has zero or more members associated with the content;

comparing the set of target servers to configuration parameters;

pruning the set of target servers to eliminate target servers that do not match the configuration parameters;

selecting a subset of one or more of the target servers that were not eliminated; and

returning the subset as a response to the request for domain name resolution.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the configuration parameters include network policies, server load measurements and network path measurements.

33. In a network having a plurality of nodes allocated among a plurality of content distribution networks and a plurality of access service providers to which clients seeking content connect, a method comprising:

sending a request for content from a client to the client'"'"'s access service provider; and

using anycast routing to identify a nearest edge of a content distribution network nearest to the client, based on content peering relationships between the access service providers.

34. The method of claim 33, further comprising:

using anycasting to find the nearest edge; and

using policies returned by a redirector in selecting where to attach a client to the plurality of content distribution networks.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein configured preferences on the client are used in addition to the policies in selecting where to attach a client to the plurality of content distribution networks.