Load balancing across origin servers

A computing apparatus comprising:

• one or more computer readable storage media;
• one or more processors operatively coupled with the one or more computer readable storage media;
• and
• program instructions stored on the one or more computer readable storage media for load balancing requests across origin servers that, when executed by the one or more processors, direct the computing apparatus to at least:
• receive information from one or more servers in a network indicative of a distribution, by the one or more servers, of past requests for content to each of the origin servers;
• update a load balancing profile for the origin servers to reflect the distribution of requests by the one or more servers;
• receive new requests for content;
• and
• for one or more of the new requests for content, select to which origin server, of the origin servers, to send a given request for content based at least on the load balancing profile for the origin servers.

A method of operating a server in a network, the network comprising a plurality of servers that communicate between end user devices and a plurality of origin servers, the method comprising:

• tracking a distribution of content requests sent by the plurality of servers in the content delivery network to the plurality of origin servers, wherein the distribution of content requests comprises quantities of the content requests distributed to each origin server in the plurality of origin servers;
• receiving a request from an end user device for content that is not maintained by a first server;
• selecting an origin server in the plurality of origin servers to retrieve the requested content based at least in part on the distribution of content requests;
• and
• sending a content request to the selected origin server.