Demand-based edge caching video content system and methods

1. A method of delivering resources of an edge server selected from a plurality of edge servers disposed across a network and in communication with a central server, comprising:

storing content at the central server;

marking, with a back office manager, that the content is ready for usage in response to the storing;

receiving a demand for the content at a resource manager operable with the back office manager;

in response to the receiving, reading, with the resource manager, a content allocation register, the content allocation register comprising:

a popular asset list comprising a plurality of content assets stored at the central server, the plurality of content assets ranked by highest demand; and

an edge server list indicating which edge servers have delivered each content asset in the popular asset list;

selecting, with the resource manager, a selected edge server as a function of the content allocation register; and

causing, with the resource manager, the selected edge server to deliver the content.

2. The method of claim 1 , the plurality of content assets limited to only those assets requested within a predetermined past usage window.

3. The method of claim 2 , the predetermined past usage window comprising a period of twenty-four hours.

4. The method of claim 2 , the plurality of content assets comprising one thousand or fewer content assets.

5. The method of claim 2 , the plurality of content assets comprising less than twenty percent of a total number of content assets stored at the central server.

6. The method of claim 2 , further comprising delivering the content from the selected edge server to a streaming server to fulfill a video-on-demand session request.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising updating the content allocation register to include the content and the selected edge server.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving another demand for another content;

selecting another edge server as the function of the popular asset list; and

updating the content allocation register to include the another content and the another edge server.

9. The method of claim 1 , the edge server list further comprising a timestamp indicating when each edge server delivered the each content asset in the popular asset list.

10. The method of claim 9 , the selecting comprising selecting the edge server as a function of the timestamp.

11. The method of claim 10 , the selecting comprising selecting edge servers having delivered the content more recently before other edge servers having delivered the content less recently.

12. The method of claim 9 , further comprising updating the edge server list to include a time when the content was delivered from the selected edge server.

13. A video-on-demand system, comprising:

a resource manager in communication with a central storage server, a back office system, and a plurality of edge servers disposed distally across a network from the central storage server, the resource manager to:

receive a video-on-demand session request requesting delivery of content;

read a content allocation register comprising:

a popular asset list comprising a plurality of content assets stored at the central storage server ranked by highest demand within a predetermined past usage window; and

an edge server list indicating which edge servers have delivered each content asset of the popular asset list;

select a selected edge server from the content allocation register as a function of the popular asset list and the edge server list; and

cause the selected edge server to deliver the content in response to the video-on-demand session request.

14. The video-on-demand system of claim 13 , the edge server list further comprising a timestamp indicating when the edge servers delivered the each content asset of the popular asset list.

15. The video-on-demand system of claim 14 , the selected edge server having a more recent timestamp than at least some other edge servers of the plurality of edge servers.

16. The video-on-demand system of claim 14 , the plurality of content assets less than a predefined content asset limit.

17. The video-on-demand system of claim 16 , the predefined content asset limit comprising a portion of a total number of content assets stored at the central storage server.

18. The video-on-demand system of claim 13 , the resource manager further to update the content allocation register with each video-on-demand session request fulfilled within the predefined past usage window.

19. The video-on-demand system of claim 18 , the selected edge server to fulfill the each video-on-demand session request by delivering the content a streaming server.

20. The video-on-demand system of claim 18 , the predefined past usage window less than or equal to twenty-four hours.