Integrated Proximity Routing for Content Distribution

• US 20110040861A1
• Filed: 08/17/2009
• Published: 02/17/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/17/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Lee, Seungjoon, Van der Merwe, Jacobus
• Granted Patent: US 8,966,033 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching

Abstract

A domain name server includes a processor configured to receive a request from a requester for an edge cache address, identify a first edge cache serving content requests to an anycast address from the requester, and determine a load of first edge cache. The processor is further configured to provide unicast address of an alternate edge cache to requester in response to the request when the load exceeds a threshold or to provide anycast address to requester in response to request when the load is below the threshold.

Claims

1. A domain name server comprising:

a processor configured to;

receive a request from a requester for an edge cache address, the requester being part of an serving region;

identify a first edge cache serving content requests sent to an anycast address from the serving region;

determine a load of the first edge cache;

provide a unicast address of an alternate edge cache to the requester in response to the request when the load exceeds a threshold; and

provide the anycast address to the requester in response to the request when the load is at or below the threshold.

2. The domain name server of claim 1 wherein the alternate edge cache is based on network distance, network cost, network latency, link capacity, or any combination thereof of each of a set of cache servers.

3. The domain name server of claim 1 wherein the alternate edge cache is further based on a load of each of the set of cache servers.

4. The domain name server of claim 1 wherein the alternate edge cache is identified prior to receiving the request.

5. The domain name server of claim 1 wherein the threshold is at least about 85% of the capacity of the first edge cache.

6. The domain name server of claim 1 wherein the load of the first edge cache is based on network bandwidth, CPU utilization, memory utilization, number of requests being served, or any combination thereof.

7. A system comprising:

first and second cache servers, the cache servers each configured to respond to an anycast address, the first cache server configured to respond to a first unicast address, and the second cache server configured to respond to a second unicast address;

a domain name server, the domain name server configured to;

receive a request from a requester for a cache server address;

identify a preferred cache server address from a set of cache server addresses, the set of addresses including the first unicast address, the second unicast address, and the anycast address, the preferred address based on routing of the anycast address and a cost for providing content from each of the first and second cache servers; and

provide the preferred address to the requester.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the routing of the anycast addresses directs a content request to the first cache server.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the preferred address is the second unicast address when the first cache server is overloaded.

10. The system of claim 8 wherein the preferred address is the anycast address when the first cache server is not overloaded.

11. The system of claim 7 wherein the preferred address is further based on the load of each of the first and second cache servers.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the load of each of the first or second cache server is based on network bandwidth, CPU utilization, memory utilization, number of requests being served, or any combination thereof for the respective cache server.

13. The system of claim 7 wherein the cost for providing content includes network distance, network cost, network latency, link capacity, or any combination thereof.

14. A computer readable medium comprising a plurality of instructions to manipulate a processor, the plurality of instructions comprising:

instructions to identify a plurality of unicast cache servers for an serving region, each unicast cache server responding to one of a plurality of unicast addresses;

instructions to determine an serving region cache server for the serving region, the serving region cache server responding to content requests from the serving region; and

instructions to select an alternate cache server from the plurality of unicast cache servers.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 14 wherein the serving region includes client systems sharing a common ingress point.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 14 wherein determining the serving region cache server utilizes routing information of the anycast address for the serving region.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 14 further comprising:

instructions to obtain load information from the serving region cache server; and

instructions to provide the unicast address of the alternate cache server when the serving region cache server is overloaded

18. The computer readable medium of claim 17 wherein the load information includes network bandwidth, CPU utilization, memory utilization, number of requests being served, or any combination thereof.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 14 wherein the instructions to select an alternate cache server include instructions to determine a network distance, a network cost, a network latency, a link capacity, or any combination thereof between the serving region and each of the plurality of unicast cache servers.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 14 wherein the instructions to select an alternate cache server include determining load information for each of the plurality of unicast cache servers.