Incentive driven content delivery

• US 8,447,831 B1
• Filed: 03/31/2008
• Issued: 05/21/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sivasubramanian, Swaminathan, Richardson, David R., Marshall, Bradley E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Rashid, Harunur
• Application Number:
  US12/060,143
• Time in Patent Office: 1,877 Days
• Field of Search: 709/216, 709/217, 709/218, 709/226, 709/230, 709/238
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/788 Autonomous allocation of resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1021 based on client or server locations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1029 using data related to the state of servers by a load balancer
• 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

Abstract

A system and method for management and processing of resource requests are provided. A content delivery network service provider receives a DNS query from a client computing device corresponding to a requested resource from the client computing device. The content delivery network service provider associates the requested content into a set of content segments. For each content segment, the content delivery network service provider identifies the network address of a registered content provider, such as peer computing device, and a cache component of the content delivery service provider. The content delivery network service provider also provides tokens for requesting the content from a registered content provider. The client computing device obtains the content from the registered content providers and/or the cache component of the content delivery network service provider. Thereafter, the content delivery network service provider reconciles with the registered content providers for content provided to client computing devices.

Claims

1. A method for managing content comprising:

obtaining a DNS query, by a content delivery network service provider, for content from a client computing device;

determining at least one peer computing device for providing at least a portion of the requested content, wherein the at least one peer computing device is a third party computing device independent of the content delivery network service provider such that providing of content segments by the peer computing device requires reconciliation information not required by a cache component associated with the content delivery network service provider;

resolving the DNS query by providing identification information identifying the at least one peer computing device for providing at least a portion of the requested content, wherein the identification information includes a network address of the identified peer computing device and a token for reconciling content provided by the peer computing device, and wherein the token for reconciling content provided by the peer computing device includes information to be used in providing reconciliation information by the client computing device to the at least one peer computing device; and

obtaining a reconciliation request from the at least one peer computing device, wherein the reconciliation request includes reconciliation information based on the token for reconciling content provided by the client computing device.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein determining at least one peer computing device for providing at least a portion of the requested content includes determining at least one peer computing device having a geographic proximity and at least a portion of the requested content.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the geographic proximity is based on a geographic coverage defined by the content service provider.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the requested content is associated into a set of content segments, and wherein determining at least one peer computing device for providing at least a portion of the requested content includes determining at least one peer computing device for providing at least each segment in the set of content segments.

5. The method as recited in claim 4 further comprising distributing, by the content delivery network service provider, copies of each content segment in the set of content segments to peer computing devices in advance of obtaining the DNS query from the client computing device.

6. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising:

obtaining one or more reconciliation requests from the at least one peer computing device, wherein the one or more reconciliation requests include tokens received by the at least one peer computing device from client computing devices; and

reconciling, by the content delivery network service provider, the one or more reconciliation requests from the at least one peer computing devices.

7. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein reconciling by the content delivery network service provider includes interfacing with a network resource.

8. A method comprising:

transmitting, by a client computing device, a DNS query associated with content request to a content delivery network service provider;

obtaining, by the client computing device, identification information responsive to the DNS query, wherein the identification information includes;

a specification of a set of content segments comprising the requested content,

network address information of at least one registered content provider and at least one cache component associated with the content delivery network service provider for providing each content segment in the set of content segments, and

client computing device reconciliation information for requesting content segments from a registered content provider,

wherein the at least one registered content provider is associated with a third party computing device independent of the content delivery network service provider such that providing of content segments by the registered content provider requires reconciliation information not required by the at least one cache component associated with the content delivery network service provider; and

transmitting requests for the content segments in accordance with the identification information, wherein requests transmitted to the registered content provider include reconciliation information based upon the client computing device reconciliation information, and wherein the requests transmitted to the registered content provider are used by the registered content provider to request reconciliation from the content delivery network service provider.

9. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein the reconciliation information includes an electronic token that includes information associated with a client computing device.

10. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein transmitting requests for the content segments in accordance with the identification information includes:

determining, by the client computing device, whether copies of the content segments are available on the client computing device;

if a copy of the content segments are not available, requesting, by the client computing device, unavailable content segments from the registered content providers in the identification information along with the reconciliation information; and

if the any content segment is also unavailable from the registered content provider, requesting, by the client computing device, the unavailable content segments from the cache component associated with the content delivery network service provider.

11. A content delivery network comprising:

at least one computing device distributing content to a set of registered peer computing devices;

a DNS server component obtaining DNS queries from client computing devices and providing identification information responsive to the DNS query, wherein the identification information includes;

a specification of a set of content segments comprising the requested content,

network address information of at least one registered peer computing device and at least one cache component associated with a content delivery network service provider providing each content segment in the set of content segments, and

reconciliation information requesting content segments from a registered peer computing device,

wherein the reconciliation information includes information to be used in providing reconciliation information by the client computing device to the at least one registered peer computing device, and

wherein the at least one registered peer computing device is a third party computing device independent of the content delivery network service provider such that providing of content segments by the registered peer computing device requires reconciliation information not required by the at least one cache component associated with the content delivery network service provider; and

a cache component for providing requested content in lieu of the peer computing devices.

12. The content delivery network recited in claim 11, wherein the identification information is prioritized to define an order for requesting the content segments.

13. The content delivery network as recited in claim 11 further comprising means for reconciling content provided by the set of registered peer computing devices to the client computing device.