Content delivery network

1. 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 within the content delivery network hosts a media file;

providing a uniform resource indicator (URI) corresponding to the media file, the URI configured to identify multiple ones of the inventory servers;

receiving, at a first one of the inventory servers, a request for the media file from a user system, the request specifying the URI and configured to access the first inventory server via anycast routing;

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 within the content delivery network that hosts the media file, based at least in part on geographic proximity of the selected delivery server to the user system; and

redirecting the request for the media file from the first inventory server to the selected delivery server within the content delivery network, thereby enabling the user system to access the media file from the selected delivery server within the content delivery network.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said redirecting the request comprises performing an HTTP redirect.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein said redirecting the request comprises sending an internet protocol (IP) datagram to the selected delivery server, thereby enabling a new connection to be created between the user system and the selected delivery server.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the anycast routing enables the first one of the inventory servers to be selected as a relatively more geographically proximate server to the user system than others of the inventory servers.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising provisioning the media file to a subset of the delivery servers in the content delivery network.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising providing to the plurality of inventory servers a message from each of the delivery servers that was provisioned with the media file, the message announcing the receiving of the media file.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the message comprises location information identifying a location of the media file on the respective delivery server.

8. A method of accessing content from a content delivery network, the method comprising:

receiving a uniform resource indicator (URI) corresponding to a media file at a user system comprising computer hardware;

submitting a request for delivery of the media file from the user system, the request being submitted to the URI, the URI configured to identify a plurality of inventory servers in a content delivery network;

receiving a response at the user system from a first one of the inventory servers selected via anycast routing, the first inventory server comprising an inventory describing which delivery servers i within the content delivery network host the media file;

receiving a redirected connection at the user system from the first inventory server to a selected one of the delivery servers that hosts the media file and that has closer geographic proximity to the user system than another of the delivery servers within the content delivery network; and

receiving the media file at the user system from the selected delivery server.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the redirected connection is configured to be performed as an HTTP redirect.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the computer system further comprises a plurality of computing devices.

11. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

provisioning the media file to a subset of the delivery servers in the content delivery network; and

providing to the plurality of inventory servers a message from each of the delivery servers that was provisioned with the media file, the message announcing the receiving of the media file, wherein the message comprises location information identifying a location of the media file on the respective delivery server.

12. 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 media item;

a content origin server in the content delivery network, the content origin server configured to provide a uniform resource indicator (URI) corresponding to the media item, the URI configured to identify multiple ones of a plurality of inventory servers in the content delivery network; and

means for distributing inventory decisions amongst the 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 media item in the edge nodes within 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, the requests each specifying the URI for the media item, and

enable the end user systems to connect to a selected one of the edge nodes within the content delivery network based on the inventory stored with the inventory server and based at least in part on geographic proximity of the selected one of the edge nodes to the end user systems, thereby enabling the end user systems to access the media item from the selected edge node within the content delivery network.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the means for distributing the inventory decisions comprises one or more of the following: an inventory server, a propagation server, and a delivery server.

14. The system of claim 12 , wherein each of the inventory servers is further configured to enable the end user systems to connect to the selected edge node by implementing a redirection mechanism.

15. The system of claim 12 , wherein the inventory decisions comprise determining which of the edge nodes to connect to the end user systems.

16. The system of claim 12 , wherein the inventory decisions comprise determining which items of inventory are to be used to satisfy the requests.

17. The system of claim 12 , wherein the means for distributing inventory decisions is configured to update the inventory in the plurality of inventory servers based on inventory announcements from the edge nodes that host the media item.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the inventory announcements comprising location information corresponding to the media item.