The invention generally relates to classification of packets transmitted in a network and more specifically to the determination of content to be stored in storage located along the network based on the type of data transferred in the packet.
Service providers worldwide are facing a mounting problem of flattening revenues coupled with increasing costs brought forth by increasing usage of bandwidth, growing churn, subscriber saturation and competitive price pressures. These mobile and broadband providers are facing challenges in delivering new revenue generating services while seeing their (over the top) OTT counterparts reaping rewards with content delivered over the networks they built and maintained over the years.
The vast majority of these OTT services are delivered over hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), the de-facto protocol for application development and delivery. Be it video, social networking, search, or advertising, over fixed line as well as mobile applications, it is most likely running on top of HTTP. However, this protocol is also the most processing intensive protocol for network devices. Hence practically any increase in usage results in increase the pressure on the service providers.
Certainly one way to control traffic on the Internet requires various levels of understanding of the traffic that flows through the network which is also increasing in its level of sophistication. Various systems and solutions have been offered to enable deep-packet-inspection (DPI) to enable an ever sophisticated ability to shape the traffic on the network. This ability allows the service providers to better manage the network and its related resources, provide a higher level of quality of service (QoS) in the hopes to increase revenues and profits. However, the rapid increase in the delivery of heavy bandwidth consuming data, such as video, and consumption thereof, requires a new level of handling that is not available today in prior art solutions. A known problem is the access of a user node to a content source and subsequently the access by another user node to the same content, resulting in additional load on the content provider and on the entire network. When, for example, popular video clips are accessed there is a significant and noticeable degradation of the network performance that may even lead to a network failure. Some prior art solutions attempt to store all the data in caches, however, with the huge amounts of data and the need to inspect each and every packet, regardless of its source, makes this a daunting and impractical task.
It would be advantageous to provide service providers with a solution that will enable them to effectively manage and control the delivery of heavy bandwidth consuming data such that the overall bandwidth requirements are loaded and better shared across the network in general, and in particular within the network of a specific service provider.
To realize some of the advantages described above, there is provided a method for identification of popular content provided over a first portion of a network to a second portion of a network in the form of packets containing, the method comprises identifying a source of content in the first portion of a network. Deep-packet-inspection (DPI) is performed to determine if content in each packet related to the content is to be stored in a storage that is in a path between the content source and at least a user node in the second portion of the network. The content is stored. A request is received from the user node for a requested content. It is determined if the requested content or portions of the requested content is in the storage. if the requested content or portions of the requested content is missing in the storage, a request is sent to the content source for the requested content or missing portions of the requested content.
Specifically, the content is stored in the storage based on at least popularity of the content.
More specifically, the technique includes determination of the at least a content source as a source from which content is to be saved in the storage.
More specifically, the determination of the at least a content source is based on the popularity of access to the content in the at least a content source.
More specifically, the DPI is performed on a predefined portion of packets flows from packet traffic on the first portion of the network.
More specifically, the predefined portion is determined by using a hash function that accepts as an input source, addresses and destination addresses of the packet flows.
More specifically, the hash function further accepts as an input source ports and destination ports of packet flows.
More specifically, upon determination that a content source of the at least a content source contains content of interest than at least inspecting all packets of such content source.
More specifically, the content is video content.
Another aspect of the disclosed teachings is a method for delivering popular content responsive of a request by at least a user node from a storage located on a network path between the at least a user node in a second portion of the network and at least a content source in a first portion of the network, the method comprising performing deep-packet-inspection (DPI) of packets containing content delivered over the network path and storing in a storage, content determined to be popular content.
More specifically, a source of the at least a content source providing content determined to be popular content is identified as a content source for which all packets are inspected for popular content.
Another aspect of the disclosed teachings is a method comprising receiving at least a parameter regarding data type of a content. Data packets are selected for inspection from a plurality of data packets transferring over a first portion of a network. Deep-packet-inspection (DPI) is performed on the selected data packets to determine based on the at least parameter if the data packets contain content of interest. An identification counter respective of the data packets that contain content of interest is increased. A count of the identification counter is associated with a content source. DPI is performed on each packet of the plurality of data packets that comes from an identified source. Content of the inspected each packet is stored if the inspection determined that the content was a content of interest
More specifically, the selecting data packets for inspection comprises selecting one out of a predefined portion of packets of packet flows from the traffic on a network.
More specifically, determining the predefined portion comprises using a hash function that accepts as an input the source address and destination address of packets.
More specifically, a source of content is considered to be identified upon an identification count exceeding a predetermined threshold value.
More specifically, the value of the identification counter is decreased if the count did not increase for a predefined period of time.
More specifically, storing content occurs after inspection of the content of a received data packet from the second network by the DPI unit.
The above discussed advantages of the disclosed teachings will become more apparent by describing in detail some exemplary implementations thereof with reference to the attached drawings in which:
Techniques are used in conjunction with a ‘bump-in-the-wire’ apparatus for efficient usage of network bandwidth. Specifically, the system samples packets from a plurality of content sources and identifies those content sources providing predetermined types of data, for example, video clips. Upon identification of such content sources, any data that arrives from such a content source is subject to a deep-packet-inspection (DPI) process to positively identify the content and the need to store it in cache storage such that when a subsequent request for the same content is received there is no need to transmit the content from the content source and rather deliver it from the system's storage. This results in at least less traffic flowing in entire network, faster service, and lower operational costs.
Reference is now made to
While DPI unit 210 operates on the packets that arrive from CSs 140, the CDU 230 operates with respect of requests for content received from the UNs 150 of the service provider network 130. Upon receipt of such a request, the DI 210 first checks if content from the requested CS 140 actually resides in the storage 220 by first checking that the CS 140 identification is known to the apparatus 110. If that is the case then the storage 220 is checked for the possibility of delivery of the content or portions thereof. If the entire content or portions thereof are found, then these are delivered to the requesting UN 150. If the entire content is missing, or certain portions thereof are missing, then the request is forwarded to the appropriate CS 140. Storage 220 may be semiconductor media, magnetic media, or any other type of storage media appropriate for the storage of content.
Reference is now made to
Reference is now made to
Reference is now made to
In one alternate implementation, when detecting that a portion of the requested content is in the storage 220 and deliverable to the requesting UN 150, such content is delivered immediately to the UN 150 while only the missing portions of the content is requested from the CS 140. Hence a request from the CDU 230 may be for the requested content or portions thereof. It should be further understood that in a typical implementation, once the DPI unit 210 determines that a CS 140 may contain content that should be stored in storage 220, the packets from such a CS 140 are consistently inspected for determination of popular content.
The principles of the invention are implemented as hardware, firmware, software, or any combination thereof. Moreover, the software is preferably implemented as an application program tangibly embodied on a program storage unit or non-transitory computer readable medium or a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium that can be in a form of a digital circuit, an analogy circuit, a magnetic medium, or combination thereof. The application program may be uploaded to, and executed by, a machine comprising any suitable architecture. Preferably, the machine is implemented on a computer platform having hardware such as one or more central processing units (“CPUs”), a memory, and input/output interfaces. The computer platform may also include an operating system and microinstruction code. The various processes and functions described herein may be either part of the microinstruction code or part of the application program, or any combination thereof, which may be executed by a CPU, whether or not such computer or processor is explicitly shown. In addition, various other peripheral units may be connected to the computer platform such as an additional data storage unit and a printing unit.
All examples and conditional language recited herein are intended for pedagogical purposes to aid the reader in understanding the principles of the invention and the concepts contributed by the inventor to furthering the art, and are to be construed as being without limitation to such specifically recited examples and conditions. Moreover, all statements herein reciting principles, aspects, and embodiments of the invention, as well as specific examples thereof, are intended to encompass both structural and functional equivalents thereof. Additionally, it is intended that such equivalents include both currently known equivalents as well as equivalents developed in the future, i.e., any elements developed that perform the same function, regardless of structure.
The present application is a continuation of concurrently filed patent application entitled “A System for Detection of Content Servers and Caching Popular Content Therein”, and further claims priority from priority from U.S. provisional patent application 61/375,836, entitled “A System for Detection of Content Servers and Caching Popular Content Therein”, filed on 22 Aug. 2010, and U.S. provisional patent application 61/375,838, entitled “Methods for Detection of Content Servers and Caching Popular Content Therein”, filed on 22 Aug. 2010, both assigned to common assignee and hereby incorporated by reference for all that they contain.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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Child | 13006875 | US |