Method and apparatus for facilitating secure distributed content delivery

• US 7,765,411 B2
• Filed: 04/21/2008
• Issued: 07/27/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kollective Technology Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Kontiki Incorporated (Kollective Technology Incorporated)
• Inventors: Hennessey, Wade L., Wainright, John B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hoffman; Brandon S
• Application Number:
  US12/107,037
• Publication Number:
  US 20080199003A1
• Time in Patent Office: 827 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 713/193
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1834 implemented based on peer-to-peer networks, e.g. gnutella p2p communication protocols H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2463/101 applying security measures for digital rights management data processing systems or methods, specially adapted for commerce, e.g. marketing, shopping, billing, auctions or e-commerce G06Q30/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0803 Configuration setting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/50 Network service management, e.g. ensuring proper service fulfilment according to agreements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5025 by proactively reacting to service quality change, e.g. by reconfiguration after service quality degradation or upgrade
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5058 Service discovery by the service manager
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/509 wherein the managed service relates to media content delivery, e.g. audio, video or TV
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/50 Testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4541 Directories for service discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/029 Firewall traversal, e.g. tunnelling or, creating pinholes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/04 for providing a confidential data exchange among entities communicating through data packet networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0823 using certificates cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication involving certificates H04L9/3263
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/12 Applying verification of the received information cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for data integrity or data verification H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/123 received data contents, e.g. message integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• 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 67/1014 based on the content of a request
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1023 based on a hash applied to IP addresses or costs
• 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 67/104 : Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1063 : Discovery through centralising entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1072 : Discovery involving ranked list compilation of candidate peers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/108 : characterised by resources being split in blocks or fragments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1091 : Interfacing with client-server systems or between P2P systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 : Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 : Routing a service request depending on the request content or context
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/326 : in the transport layer [OSI layer 4] H04L69/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 : in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 : Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 : Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 : Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 : Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99939 : Privileged access

Abstract

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates receiving content from a primary peer and forwarding it to a secondary peer, wherein blocks of the content are sent to the secondary peer prior to all of the blocks of the content being received from the primary peer. The system starts by receiving an encrypted list of checksums from a server, wherein each checksum in the list is associated with a corresponding block of the content. Next, the system decrypts the encrypted list of checksums to form a list of decrypted checksums. The system then receives a block of the content from the primary peer and calculates a checksum for the block of the content. The system subsequently compares the calculated checksum with a corresponding checksum from the list of decrypted checksums received from the server. If the calculated checksum matches the corresponding checksum, the system sends the block of the content to the secondary peer.

Claims

1. A method for serving data to a peer, comprising:

receiving a list of checksums from a server, the list of checksums corresponding to a plurality of checksums associated with a plurality of blocks of content forming a file;

receiving a block of content from a first peer;

determining whether the block is valid by comparing a checksum of the block with a checksum from the list of checksums received from the server; and

when the block is validated, making the block available to a second peer, prior to completing download of the file.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the list of checksums is encrypted, the method further comprising:

decrypting the checksum when a first block is received.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the list of checksums is signed, the method further comprising;

validating the list of checksums using a public key of the server.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, further comprising:

the decryption mechanism further to decrypt a block of content.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving different blocks of the content from different peers.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the block of content received from the peer is an encrypted block of content.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request for the block of content from the second peer, the request including a public key of the second peer; and

encrypting the block of content with the public key of the second peer, prior to sending the block of content to the second peer.

8. A method for publishing content in a distributed content delivery network, comprising:

receiving content for publication;

dividing the content into a plurality of blocks, wherein a block of the plurality of blocks is distributed by a peer of the distributed content delivery network;

calculating a checksum for each of the plurality of blocks;

encrypting a file including the calculated checksums to form an encrypted file with a list of the calculated checksums; and

signing the encrypted file with a private key.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving a request for the encrypted file, the request including a public key of a requesting peer, and encrypting the list of the calculated checksum with the public key of the requesting peer.

10. An apparatus comprising:

a receiving mechanism to receive an encrypted list of checksums from a server, wherein each checksum in the list is associated with a corresponding block of content;

the receiving mechanism further to receive a block of the content from a first peer;

a calculation mechanism to calculate a checksum for the block of content received from the first peer;

a comparison mechanism to compare the calculated checksum with a corresponding checksum from the list of decrypted checksums received from the server; and

a delivery mechanism to make the block of content available to a second peer, if the comparison mechanism successfully validates the block of content.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising a signature verification mechanism to use a public key of the server to verify a digital signature of the encrypted list of checksums.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising:

the receiving mechanism further to receive different blocks of the content from different peers.

13. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising:

a decryption mechanism to decrypt the encrypted list of checksums using a private key of the apparatus.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising:

an encryption mechanism to encrypt the block of content prior to sending the content to a secondary peer.