Distributed Content Discovery for In-Network Caching

• US 20160294971A1
• Filed: 03/30/2015
• Published: 10/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Li, Xu, Dao, Ngoc-Dung
• Granted Patent: US 10,298,713 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0803 Configuration setting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• 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 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching

Abstract

Network caching performance can be improved by allowing users to discover distributed cache locations storing content of a central content server. Specifically, retrieving the content from a distributed cache proximately located to the user, rather than from the central content server, may allow for faster content delivery, while also consuming fewer network resources. Content can be associated with distributed cache locations storing that content by cache location tables, which may be maintained at intermediate network nodes, such as border routers and other devices positioned in-between end-users and central content servers. Upon receiving a query, the intermediate network nodes may determine whether the content requested by the query is associated with a cache location in the cache location table, and if so, provide the user with a query response identifying the associated cache location.

Claims

1. A method for deploying cache location services, the method comprising:

selecting, by a controller, a subset of candidate nodes to provide the cache location services for a content server based on a criteria; and

sending, by the controller, a configuration message to nodes in the subset of candidate nodes, wherein the configuration message instructs the nodes in the subset of candidate nodes to maintain cache location tables for content of the content server.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration message further comprises information to indicate a logical topology.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the logical topology defines logical interconnections between the subset of candidate nodes or relative topological properties of the subset of candidate nodes.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the cache location tables identify cache nodes storing content currently reposited in the content server.

5. The method of claim 1, before the selecting step further comprising:

identifying, by the controller, the candidate nodes in a network based on a rule; and

receiving, by the controller, a message including information of the selected candidate nodes from a network entity.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending, by the controller, a message to a traffic engineering controller, the message indicating that the subset of candidate nodes are maintaining cache location tables for content of the content server.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the criteria comprises at least one of the following:

at least one of an available bandwidth of the candidate network nodes, available storing space of the candidate network nodes, network loads on the of the candidate network nodes, and cost of maintaining caching location tables at the candidate network nodes.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration message instructs the subset of candidate nodes to associate content identifiers or content segment information with cache identifiers in the cache location tables.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the configured message comprises at least one of the following:

a list of at least some of the subset of candidate nodes; and

a list of the two or more content servers.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein logical interconnections between the subset of candidate nodes are configured to transport content discovery messages between the subset of candidate nodes during content cache discovery, and wherein the logical interconnections are configured to transport CLS table maintenance messages between the subset of candidate nodes when information of a content cache is added, deleted, or updated in a CLS table.

11. An apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing programming for execution by the processor, the programming including instructions to;

select a subset of candidate nodes to provide the cache location services for a content server based on a criteria; and

send a configuration message to nodes in the subset of candidate nodes, wherein the configuration message instructs the nodes in the subset of candidate nodes to maintain cache location tables for content of the content server.

12. A method for discovering cached content, the method comprising:

receiving, by a first node in a subset of candidate nodes, a query from a requesting device and a stop forwarding condition, the query comprises information requesting caching locations of content reposited in a content server of a network, wherein the first node in the subset of candidate nodes maintains a first cache location table;

forwarding, by the first node in the subset of candidate nodes, the query to at least one of the subset of candidate nodes configured to maintain cache location tables for the content server if the stop forwarding condition does not satisfy; and

stopping, by the first node in the subset of candidate nodes, the query operation if the stop forwarding condition is satisfied.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein receiving a stop forwarding condition comprises:

receiving, the stop forwarding condition from the requesting device.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein receiving a stop forwarding condition comprises:

receiving, the stop forwarding condition from a network controller.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the stop forwarding condition comprises at least one of the following:

query lifetime, query width, and query depth.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein a stop forwarding condition is embedded in the query, and wherein candidate nodes in the subset of candidate nodes are configured to cease forwarding the query to further candidate nodes in the subset of candidate when the stop forwarding condition is satisfied.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein forwarding rules are embedded in the query, and wherein candidate nodes in the subset of candidate nodes are configured to forward the query to further candidate nodes in the subset of candidate in accordance with the forwarding rules embedded in the query.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the forwarding rules instruct candidate nodes in the subset of candidate nodes to forward the query on a path.

19. The method of claim 12, wherein the query response identifies cache nodes storing the requested content.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the query response prompts the requesting device to retrieve the requested content from one of the cache nodes storing the requested content.

21. The method of claim 12, wherein the query comprises a content identifier and a content server identifier.

22. The method of claim 12, wherein the query is forwarded over virtual connections extending between network nodes configured to maintain the cache location tables.

23. An apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing programming for execution by the processor, the programming including instructions to;

receive a query from a requesting device, the query requesting caching locations of content reposited in a content server of a network from a requesting device, wherein the first node in the subset of candidate nodes maintains a first cache location table;

determine whether the first cache location identifies a caching location storing the requested content;

forward the query to at least one of a subset of candidate nodes configured to maintain cache location tables for the content server if the first cache location table does not identify at least one cache location storing the requested content; and

send a query response to the requesting device if the first cache location table identifies one or more cache locations storing the requested content, wherein the query response indicates the one or more cache locations storing the requested content.