CONTENT SPECIFIC ROUTER CACHING

• US 20150201033A1
• Filed: 01/10/2014
• Published: 07/16/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/10/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gupta, Vikas
• Granted Patent: US 9,930,132 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5682 Policies or rules for updating, deleting or replacing the stored data

Abstract

A method of operating a router is disclosed. The method may include updating a data object to or from a router cache of the router. For example, the router may store or distribute the data object by determining whether a client device in a local network established by the router stores a version of the data object different from a version on the router cache. For another example, the router may store the data object based on a cacheable tag associated with the data object, the cacheable tag indicating that the data object is intended by a content server system to be cached in the router cache.

Claims

1. A method of operating a local router, comprising:

receiving a connection from a client device to a local network established by the local router;

identifying a first version of a data object in the client device;

determining whether a cached version of the data object is available in a router cache of the local router, and when the cached version is available, whether the first version of the data object in the client device is different from the cached version stored in the router cache; and

responsive to determining that the first version is different from the cached version or that no cached version is available in the router cache, updating either the first version or the cached version to match the first version and the cached version.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the first version of the data object includes identifying the first version of an application running on the client device, wherein the data object is a binary package corresponding to the application.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising verifying a signature from the client device to authenticate the client device for write access to the router cache;

and

wherein said updating the first version or the cached version includes updating once the signature is verified.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said updating includes comparing versions of the data object from all client devices in the local network to determine which version is most up-to-date.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said updating includes uploading the first version of the data object to the router cache when the first version is determined to be more up-to-date or when no cached version of the data object is available in the router cache.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein said updating includes querying a user through the client device to download the cached version from the router cache when the cached version is determined to be more up-to-date than the first version in the client device.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein said updating includes downloading the cached version from the router cache in response to determining that the cached version is more up-to-date than the first version in the client device.

8. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

receiving an update request from the client device to update the data object on the client device;

wherein said updating includes downloading the cached version of the data object from the router cache in response to receiving the update request.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the data object is an application content package for installing or executing a specific application;

and wherein receiving the update request includes receiving the update request to update the specific application.

10. A method of operating a local router comprising:

receiving a first request for a data object from a client device;

determining whether the data object is stored in a router cache of the local router;

responsive to determining that the data object is not stored in the router cache, forwarding the first request through an Internet Service Provider (ISP) gateway;

receiving network packets containing the data object from the ISP gateway, wherein the data object is associated with a cacheable tag indicating the data object is intended to be cached in the router cache of the local router; and

storing the data object in the router cache in response to receiving the network packets containing the data object associated with the cacheable tag.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein receiving the first request includes receiving the first request from the client device to an application specific server system;

and wherein the cacheable tag indicates that the application specific server system intends the data object to be cached in the router cache.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising verifying an authentication signature as originating from a trusted source to grant access to store the data object to the router cache.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising serving the data object in the router cache to a second client device in response to receiving a second request for the data object from the second client device.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the data object is a static resource served by a content server system.

15. A router comprising:

a modem to connect with a global network;

a network module to establish a local network;

a cache memory to store one or more static resources; and

a cache management module to determine whether to store a data object from a content source over either the global network or the local network based on a cacheable tag or version identifier from the content source.

16. The router of claim 15, further comprising a security module to verify an authentication signature from the content source to grant write access to the cache memory of the router.

17. The router of claim 15, wherein when the modem receives the data object associated with the cacheable tag indicating that the data object is intended to be cached, the cache management module is configured to store the data object in the cache memory.

18. The router of claim 15, wherein when the network module receives a request for the data object from a client device, the cache management module is configured to respond by sending a version of the data object in the cache memory to the client device.

19. The router of claim 15, wherein the cache management module is configured to identify a client device running a first version of a specific application through the network module;

and wherein the cache management module is further configured to store a data package of the first version in the cache memory when the first version is more up-to-date than a cached version of the specific application in the cache memory or when the cache memory contains no cached version of the specific application.

20. The router of claim 15, wherein the cache management module is configured to request a client device connected through the network module to update a specific application from a cached version of the specific application stored in the cache memory.