Content delivery network
AssigneeHighwinds Holdings, Inc.
InventorsJoshua D. Gagliardi, Timothy S. Munger
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A content delivery system for providing content from a content delivery network to end users may include a plurality of delivery servers that host one or more content items and an inventory server having an inventory of content. The inventory of content can indicate which of the delivery servers host the content items. The inventory server may receive a request for a content item from an end user system and may access the inventory of content to determine one or more delivery servers that host the content item. In response to this determination, the inventory server may redirect the request for the content item to a selected one of the delivery servers. The selected delivery server can then serve the content item to the end user system.
Claims15
A method of providing content to end users from a content delivery network, the method comprising:
- storing inventory information in an inventory of each of a plurality of inventory servers in a content delivery network, the inventory information describing which delivery servers in the content delivery network hosts a media file;
- receiving, at a first one of the inventory servers, a request for the media file from a user system;
- in response to receiving the request for the media file, accessing the inventory of the first inventory server to identify a selected one of the delivery servers that hosts the media file;
- and
- redirecting the request for the media file from the selected inventory server to the selected delivery server, thereby enabling the user system to access the media file from the selected delivery server.
A method of accessing content from a content delivery network, the method comprising:
- submitting a request for delivery of a media file, the request being submitted to a network address configured to identify a plurality of inventory servers in a content delivery network;
- receiving a response from a first one of the inventory servers, the inventory server comprising an inventory describing which delivery servers in the content delivery network host the media file;
- receiving a redirected connection from the first inventory server to a selected one of the delivery servers that hosts the media file;
- and
- receiving the media file from the selected delivery server;
- wherein at least said receiving the redirected connection is implemented by a computer system comprising computer hardware.
A system for providing content to end users from a content delivery network, the system comprising:
- a plurality of edge nodes in a content delivery network, at least some of the edge nodes hosting a content item;
- and
- means for distributing inventory decisions amongst a plurality of inventory servers in the content delivery network, whereby each of the inventory servers is configured to obtain an inventory specifying locations of the content item in the edge nodes in the content delivery network, wherein each of the inventory servers are configured to:
- process requests received from end user systems for access to the media item, and
- enable the end user systems to connect to a selected one of the edge nodes based on the inventory stored with the inventory server, thereby enabling the user systems to access the media file from the selected delivery server.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.