Content delivery in wireless wide area networks
View Patent ↗In a content delivery network, a metrics manager processes network topology information from channel measurements collected from at least one of a digi-node field and a client field, and distributes data signals to a selected edge-server set for storage and delivery to client devices. A parent server selects the edge-server set by employing an algorithm that constructs a trellis having a number of states at least equal to a number of edge servers in the edge-server set, wherein each state comprises a plurality of nodes, each node corresponding to one of a plurality of candidate edge servers. A trellis-exploration algorithm provides interconnects between each node of a first state to each of a plurality of nodes in a next state, and for each node in a state, selects a path corresponding to a best performance metric that connects to a node in a previous state, wherein each performance metric comprises the network topology information.
1. An apparatus configured to select an edge-server set from a plurality of candidate edge servers, comprising:
a metrics manager configured to produce network topology information from channel measurements collected from at least one of a digi-node field and a client field, and to distribute data signals to the edge-server set for at least one of storage and delivery to client devices; and
a parent server configured to:
construct a trellis having a number of states at least equal to a number of edge servers in the edge-server set, wherein each state comprises a plurality of nodes, each node corresponding to one of the plurality of candidate edge servers; and
employ a trellis-exploration algorithm to select the edge-server set, comprising providing interconnects between each node of a first state to each of a plurality of nodes in a next state, and for each node in a state, selecting a path corresponding to a best performance metric that connects to a node in a previous state, wherein each performance metric comprises the network topology information.
2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the performance metric comprises channel state information from at least one of edge servers and client devices in a wireless network.
3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the metrics manager and the parent server are configured for at least one of adapting a network topology and allocating channels to serve the client devices.
4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the network topology information comprises at least one of estimated bit rates, link-delay information, requests for retransmission, a wireless communication channel model, congestion, queue backlogs, and latency.
5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the network topology information comprises a statistical model of the network topology state comprising a time-average of at least one of server loads, user demands, queue backlogs, bit rates, channel quality, and geographical distributions of users.
6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the network topology information comprises at least one of a device network topology for each of a plurality of device types and a demand topology for each of a plurality of content types.
7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the network topology information comprises data collected from client-side metrics managers.
8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the performance metric comprises monetary costs for employing at least one of the plurality of candidate edge servers.
9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the trellis exploration algorithm accounts for allocating channels to at least one of edge servers and client devices in a wireless network.
10. An apparatus configured to employ an iterative process to select an edge-server set, comprising:
a metrics manager configured to collect network topology information from at least one of a digi-node field and a client field, and to distribute data signals to the edge-server set for at least one of storage and delivery to client devices; and
a parent server configured to:
construct a trellis having a number of states at least equal to a number of edge servers in the edge server set, wherein each state comprises a plurality of nodes, each node corresponding to one of a plurality of candidate edge servers;
employ a trellis-exploration algorithm to select the edge-server set, comprising providing interconnects between each node of a first state to each of a plurality of nodes in a next state, and for each node in a state, selecting a path corresponding to a best performance metric that connects to a node in a previous state, wherein the best performance metric comprises a benefit minus a cost for serving the client devices; and
schedule data transmissions from the edge-server set to deliver the data signals to the client devices.
11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the performance metric comprises channel state information.
12. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the trellis-exploration algorithm provides for calculating performance metrics upon adapting at least one of a network topology and a network topology state of the edge-server set.
13. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the trellis-exploration algorithm provides for selecting channels to serve the client devices.
14. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the edge-server set is selected after a predetermined number of iterations or when a predetermined criterion is met.
15. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the edge-server set is selected based on at least one of appending and deleting at least one edge server from a previous edge-server set.
16. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the performance metric is calculated using a backpressure routing algorithm.
17. An apparatus configured for selecting an edge-server set, comprising:
a metrics manager configured to collect network topology information from at least one of a digi-node field and a client field, and to distribute data signals to the edge-server set for at least one of storage and delivery to client devices; and
a parent server configured to:
construct a trellis having a number of states at least equal to a number of edge servers in the edge-server set, wherein each state comprises a plurality of nodes, each node corresponding to one of a plurality of candidate edge servers;
calculate a fitness function based on network performance and cost corresponding to each candidate edge server and the network topology information; and
employ a trellis-exploration algorithm to select the edge-server set by identifying a path through the trellis having optimal path metrics derived from the fitness function, comprising providing interconnects between each node of a first state to each of a plurality of nodes in a next state, and for each node in a state, selecting a path corresponding to a best path metric that connects to a node in a previous state, wherein the best path metric comprises the fitness function.
18. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the parent server is configured to perform multiple iterations through the trellis to refine selecting the edge-server set.
19. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the network performance comprises at least one of predicted performance and measured performance.
20. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein path metrics comprise channel state information.
21. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the trellis-exploration algorithm provides for adapting at least one of a network topology and a network topology state of the edge-server set.
22. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the trellis-exploration algorithm provides for selecting channels to serve the plurality of client devices.