Granted Patent B2

US 8,291,083 · App. 13/336,893 · Granted Oct 16, 2012

Abstract

Claims (58)

1. A content delivery network (CDN) having a plurality of points of presence (POPs) geographically distant from each other, the CDN comprising:

a first landing pad application program interface (API), accessible from a first POP of the plurality of POPs, and configured to receive a first content object;

a second landing pad API, accessible from a second POP of the plurality of POPs, and configured to receive a second content object;

a content directory configured to identify a first resource to store the first content object and a second resource to store the second content object, the content directory comprising:

stored metadata characterizing the first and second content objects, requesters of the first and second content objects and/or providers of the first and second content objects; and

a plurality of stored tags, each stored tag being associated with one or more resources configured to store a content object in accordance with a policy;

a policy store comprising a first jurisdictional policy and a second jurisdictional policy,

wherein the first jurisdictional policy applies to content objects received within a first initial jurisdictional zone comprising the first POP and identifies a storage disposition in a first storage jurisdictional zone comprising a geographical location of the first resource, and

wherein the second jurisdictional policy applies to content objects received within a second initial jurisdictional zone comprising the second POP and identifies a storage disposition in a second storage jurisdictional zone comprising a geographical location of the second resource; and

a policy manager coupled to the policy store, wherein the policy manager identifies the first jurisdictional policy as being applicable to the first content object based on stored metadata in the content directory associated with the first content object, and wherein the policy manager identifies the second jurisdictional policy as being applicable to the second content object based on stored metadata in the content directory associated with the second content object,

wherein the first resource is geographically distinct from the second resource, and

wherein the first and second content objects are stored in a consistent file structure despite being on different resources.

2. The CDN having the plurality of POPs geographically distant from each other as recited in claim 1 , wherein the plurality of tags in the content directory include one or more geographic tags.

3. The CDN having the plurality of POPs geographically distant from each other as recited in claim 1 , wherein the plurality of tags in the content directory include one or more of carbon use; energy use; storage type; equipment manufacturer; reliability; write properties; interface speed; retrieval latency; storage cost; physical security surrounding equipment; geographical location of content; a performance discriminator; equipment location;

POP, IPV4 or IPV6 compatibility; hosting entity and level of quality of service.

4. The CDN having the plurality of POPs geographically distant from each other as recited in claim 1 , wherein the first and second landing pad APIs provide a file system interface consistent with each other in structure and available content.

5. The CDN having the plurality of POPs geographically distant from each other as recited in claim 4 , wherein the first and second landing pad APIs comprise a source path for the first and second content objects.

6. The CDN having the plurality of POPs geographically distant from each other as recited in claim 1 , wherein the content directory identifies the first and second resources based on a selection among a set of eligible resources.

7. The CDN having the plurality of POPs geographically distant from each other as recited in claim 6 , wherein the selection among the set of eligible resources comprises a random or round-robin-based selection.

8. The CDN having the plurality of POPs geographically distant from each other as recited in claim 6 , wherein the selection among the set of eligible resources is based on the eligible resources' available space, cost of storage, proximity to the first and second POPs in network terms, or bandwidth cost to transport the first and second content objects.

9. A method for ingest of content for a content delivery network (CDN) having a plurality of points of presence (POPs) geographically distant from each other, the method comprising:

hosting a first landing pad application program interface (API) accessible from a first POP;

hosting a second landing pad API accessible from a second POP, wherein:

the first and second landing pad APIs provide a file system interface consistent with each other in structure and available content, and

the first and second POPs are part of the plurality of POPs;

receiving a first content object at the first landing pad API;

identifying that the first content object was received within a first jurisdictional zone;

identifying a first jurisdictional policy is applicable to the first content object based at least partly on the identification that the first content object was received within the first jurisdictional zone, the first jurisdictional policy defining a first tag;

analyzing the first tag applicable to the first content object;

selecting a first storage medium from a plurality of storage media based upon analysis of the first tag;

storing the first content object with the first storage medium;

receiving a second content object at the second landing pad API;

identifying that the second content object was received within a second jurisdictional zone;

identifying a second jurisdictional policy is applicable to the second content object based at least partly on the identification that the second content object was received within the second jurisdictional zone, the second jurisdictional policy defining a second tag;

analyzing the second tag applicable to the second content object;

selecting a second storage medium from the plurality of storage media based upon analysis of the second tag, wherein the second storage medium is geographically distant from the first storage medium; and

storing the second content object with the second storage medium, wherein the first and second content objects are stored in a consistent file structure despite being on different storage media.

10. The method for ingest of content for a CDN having the plurality of POPs geographically distant from each other as recited in claim 9 , locating the first and second POPs using one or more of domain name service (DNS), universal resource locator (URL) redirection and/or Anycast.

11. The method for ingest of content for a CDN having the plurality of POPs geographically distant from each other as recited in claim 9 , wherein the first POP and second POP were located through a process that finds nearby POPs.

12. A content delivery network (CDN) having a plurality of points of presence (POPs) geographically distant from each other that ingests content, the CDN comprising two or more hardware servers programmed for:

hosting a first landing pad application program interface (API) accessible from a first POP;

hosting a second landing pad API accessible from a second POPs, wherein:

the first and second landing pad APIs provide a file system interface consistent with each other in structure and available content, and

the first and second POP are part of the plurality of POPs;

receiving a first content object at the first landing pad API;

identifying that the first content object was received within a first jurisdictional zone;

identifying a first jurisdictional policy is applicable to the first content object based at least partly on the identification that the first content object was received within the first jurisdictional zone, the first jurisdictional policy defining a first tag;

analyzing the first tag applicable to the first content object;

selecting a first storage medium from a plurality of storage media based upon analysis of the first tag;

storing the first content object with the first storage medium;

receiving a second content object at the second landing pad API;

identifying that the second content object was received within a second initial jurisdictional zone;

identifying a second jurisdictional policy is applicable to the second content object based at least partly on the identification that the second content object was received within the second jurisdictional zone, the second jurisdictional policy defining a second tag;

analyzing the second tag applicable to the second content object;

selecting a second storage medium from the plurality of storage media based upon analysis of the second tag, wherein the second storage medium is geographically distant from the first storage medium; and

storing the second content object with the second storage medium, wherein the first and second content objects are stored in a consistent file structure despite being on different storage media.

13. The CDN having a plurality of POPs geographically distant from each other that ingests content as recited in claim 12 , wherein the first and second tags each include a geographic tag.

14. The CDN having a plurality of POPs geographically distant from each other that ingests content as recited in claim 12 , wherein the first POP and second POP were located through a process that finds nearby POPs.

Assignments (9)