Content delivery reconciliation

• US 9,026,616 B2
• Filed: 05/17/2013
• Issued: 05/05/2015
• 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:
  US13/897,027
• Publication Number:
  US 20130262628A1
• Time in Patent Office: 718 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217, 709/218, 709/219, 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 computer-implemented method comprising:

obtaining, by a content delivery network (CDN) provider, a request for content from a client device;

associating, by a CDN provider, the requested content into a set of content segments;

for individual content segments in the set of content segments, identifying a content provider and a cache component associated with the CDN provider for providing the individual content segments,

wherein the content provider is independent of the CDN provider such that providing of content segments by the content provider requires reconciliation information, and

wherein providing of content segments by the cache component associated with the CDN provider does not require reconciliation information;

responsive to the request for content, providing, by the CDN provider, client device reconciliation information and network addresses of the content provider for individual content segments, wherein the client device reconciliation information includes information to be used in providing reconciliation information by the client device to the content provider;

obtaining, by the CDN provider, from the content provider a reconciliation request for providing requested content segments to a requesting client device, wherein the reconciliation request includes registered content provider reconciliation information based on the client device reconciliation information provided to the client device; and

reconciling, by the CDN provider, the reconciliation request from the content provider in accordance with the registered content provider reconciliation information, wherein reconciling the reconciliation request comprises verifying the reconciliation request based on matching an electronic token received with the reconciliation request with an electronic token provided in response to the content request from the client device.

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

obtaining registration requests from third party computing devices;

associating the third party computing devices as registered content providers; and

providing at least one content segment to the registered content providers.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the set of content segments corresponds to equal sized content segments.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the set of content segments corresponds to varied sized content segments.

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

identifying a set of content providers according to geographic criteria; and

distributing the requested content to the identified set of content providers such that at least one copy of each content segment in the set of content segments is stored by one content provider in the set of content providers.

6. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the geographic criteria corresponds to an identified geographic region associated with the corresponding resource cache component in the identification information.

7. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein distributing the requested content to the identified set of content providers includes distributing the requested content in response to a separate content request from a content provider.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein identifying the content provider and the cache component associated with the CDN provider for providing the individual content segments includes identifying the content provider and the cache component associated with the CDN provider based on a network address of the client device.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein identifying the content provider and the cache component associated with the CDN provider for providing the individual content segments includes identifying the content provider and the cache component associated with the CDN provider based on a class associated with the client device.

10. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the reconciliation information includes an electronic token including information unique to the client device.

11. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the reconciliation information includes an electronic token including information unique to a registered computing device.

12. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the network addresses of the identified content provider for individual content segment are prioritized in an order of a preferred provider of the requested content segment.

13. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein the preferred provider is based on a network latency for delivery of the requested content.

14. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein reconciling the reconciliation request from the content provider includes initiating a financial transaction with an account associated with the content provider.

15. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein reconciling the reconciliation request from the content provider includes updating tracking information associated with the content provider.

16. A non-transitory computer readable medium having computer executable instructions for performing the method recited in claim 1.

17. A content delivery network (CDN) system comprising:

at least one computing device that;

obtains a request for content from a client device;

associates the requested content into a set of content segments;

for individual content segments in the set of content segments, identifies a content providers and a cache component associated with the CDN system for providing the individual content segments,

wherein the content provider is independent of the CDN provider such that providing of content segments by the content provider requires reconciliation information, and

wherein providing of content segments by the cache component associated with the CDN provider does not require reconciliation information;

responsive to the request for content, provides client device reconciliation information and network addresses of the content provider for individual content segments, wherein the client device reconciliation information includes information to be used in providing reconciliation information by the client device to the content provider;

obtains from the content provider a reconciliation request for providing requested content segments to a requesting client device, wherein the reconciliation request includes registered content provider reconciliation information based on the client device reconciliation information provided to the client device; and

reconciles the reconciliation request from the content provider in accordance with the registered content provider reconciliation information, wherein reconciling the reconciliation request comprises verifying the reconciliation request based on matching an electronic token received with the reconciliation request with an electronic token provided in response to the content request from the client device.

18. The system as recited in claim 17, wherein the at least one computing device further:

obtains registration requests from third party computing devices;

associates the third party computing devices as registered content providers; and

provides at least one content segment to the registered content providers.

19. The system as recited in claim 17, wherein the at least one computing device further:

identifies a set of content providers according to geographic criteria; and

distributes the requested content to the identified set of content providers such that at least one copy of each content segment in the set of content segments is stored by one content provider in the set of content providers.

20. The system as recited in claim 17, wherein identifying the content provider and the cache component associated with the CDN provider for providing the individual content segments includes identifying the content provider and the cache component associated with the CDN provider based on a network address of the client device.

21. The system as recited in claim 17, wherein identifying the content provider and the cache component associated with the CDN provider for providing the individual content segments includes identifying the content provider and the cache component associated with the CDN provider based on a class associated with the client device.