Patent Application
20110219109
The present invention relates to a system and a method for sharing a transparent proxy, and in particular to such a transparent proxy between an ISP (Internet service provider) and CDN (content distribution network).
Due to the growth of the Internet, access to data has become very complicated. Content may be requested by users operating computers that must travel through many sub networks in order to arrive to the end user computer from the content provider.
In order to optimize the access to content via the Internet, a CDN (content distribution network) is frequently used for providing delivering content such as Web pages, streaming media and applications to the user's computer. Such network is composed of geographically distributed content delivery nodes that are arranged for efficient delivery of content on behalf of third party content providers. A request from an end user for given content is directed from the computer of the end user to the Internet through a “point of presence”, such as an Internet service Provider (ISP), and hence to a server of the CDN (rather than being sent to the server of the content provider itself). Such routing minimizes the response time for data requests and provides high quality bandwidth for streaming media. Also such networks provide more efficient and cost-effective distribution to the computers of end users. Unfortunately such connections still result in a great deal of traffic between the point of presence and the content server.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,149,797 issued on Dec. 12, 2006, hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein, teaches sharing the CDN infrastructure between the CDN service provider and a network service provider (NSP) such that one or more private CDNs share infrastructure of a large CDN which manages all the private CDNs.
There is an unmet need for, and it would be highly useful to have, a system and a method for minimizing the traffic between an Internet point of presence, such as an ISP (Internet service provider) and a CDN (content delivery network).
The present invention overcomes these drawbacks of the background art by providing a system and method for sharing a transparent proxy between ISP and the CDN.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, the end user requests are routed to a proxy which resides in one or more servers, or even a “server farm”, of the ISP. Such requests can be, but are not limited to, HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) requests for a new web page, any type of content item, or for streaming data, which may be collectively referred to herein as content objects. According to this embodiment popular content is maintained at the transparent proxy, for example more preferably in the local cache of the proxy. When a request for such content is received by the proxy from an end user computer that is connected to or otherwise receives Internet connectivity services from the ISP, the proxy retrieves the information and transfers the information directly to the end user. Thus there is no need for outbound traffic, for fetching the data from a server through the Internet, in such cases; preferably such outbound traffic is not performed.
According to other embodiments of the present invention, more storage is allocated for the CDN customer at the ISP, and preferably at the transparent proxy, such that traffic in the CDN network is reduced. Such a reduction in benefits also has the advantage (without wishing to be limited to a closed list) of limiting costs for the CDN.
According to other embodiments of the present invention preferably at least one or more CDN functions, and optionally and more preferably most of the CDN functions, are implemented in the transparent proxy at the ISP. Such functions include but is not limited to control of one or more cache parameters, including but not limited to control of TTL (time to live or period of storage), managing security parameters, invalidating or removing an object from the cache through flushing and so forth.
According to other embodiments of the present invention the CDN and ISP can optionally cooperate in sharing statistical information about end user habits, preferred websites or other content and the like. For example, the ISP could send the number and frequency of requests for an object, provide a full log of information to the CDN (preferably only for requests and/or actions related to the CDN, its customers and/or its activities) and so forth.
As described herein an ISP (An Internet service provider) is a company which primarily offers access to the Internet using any type of data communication to their customers, whether through dial-up telephone access, wireless access, wired access (such as cable, broadband or the like), satellite access or any other type of access. As used herein, the term “ISP” may optionally refer to any service provider or connector which enables end user computers or other client computers to connect to the Internet, including any type of POP.
As used herein, a POP (Internet point of presence) is an access point to the Internet. It is typically a physical location that houses servers, routers, ATM switches and digital/analog call aggregators. ISPs typically have multiple POPs.
Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. The materials, methods, and examples provided herein are illustrative only and not intended to be limiting. Implementation of the method and system of the present invention involves performing or completing certain selected tasks or stages manually, automatically, or a combination thereof. Moreover, according to actual instrumentation and equipment of preferred embodiments of the method and system of the present invention, several selected stages could be implemented by hardware or by software on any operating system of any firmware or a combination thereof. For example, as hardware, selected stages of the invention could be implemented as a chip or a circuit. As software, selected stages of the invention could be implemented as a plurality of software instructions being executed by a computer using any suitable operating system. In any case, selected stages of the method and system of the invention could be described as being performed by a data processor, such as a computing platform for executing a plurality of instructions.
Although the present invention is described with regard to a “computer” on a “computer network”, it should be noted that optionally any device featuring a data processor and/or the ability to execute one or more instructions may be described as a computer, including but not limited to a PC (personal computer), a server, a minicomputer, a cellular telephone, a smart phone, a PDA (personal data assistant), a pager, TV decoder, game console, digital music player, ATM (machine for dispensing cash), POS credit card terminal (point of sale), electronic cash register. Any two or more of such devices in communication with each other, and/or any computer in communication with any other computer, may optionally comprise a “computer network”.
The invention is herein described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings. With specific reference now to the drawings in detail, it is stressed that the particulars shown are by way of example and for purposes of illustrative discussion of the preferred embodiments of the present invention only, and are presented in order to provide what is believed to be the most useful and readily understood description of the principles and conceptual aspects of the invention. In this regard, no attempt is made to show structural details of the invention in more detail than is necessary for a fundamental understanding of the invention, the description taken with the drawings making apparent to those skilled in the art how the several forms of the invention may be embodied in practice.
In the drawings:
The present invention, in at least some embodiments, relates to a system and a method for sharing a transparent proxy between an ISP (Internet service provider) and CDN, for example (and without wishing to be limited by a closed list) for improving the performance of content delivery to the customers of the CDN and reducing cost.
Referring now to the drawings,
When a request for data (such as a web page or streaming data) arrives from a user computer 120 which receives Internet service from ISP 101, the request is first received by proxy 111. If proxy 111 is transparent, which is a preferred embodiment of the present invention, then no special prior action or setting on user computer 120 is required; alternatively, if proxy 111 is optionally not transparent, then user computer 120 is preferably set with any necessary parameters or settings to permit direct communication with proxy 111.
Proxy 111 searches for the object in the local storage 112. If the object is found, the proxy 111 responds to the user's request (made through user computer 120) and sends the object to user computer 120; otherwise, the proxy 111 forwards the request to Internet 150, for example to a CDN server 140. User computer 120 is optionally connected to ISP 101 using any type of computer network 130 as previously described.
As noted above, objects are provided from a CDN, represented by CDN server 140, to local storage 112 according to one or more parameters. Objects for example are optionally and preferably provided according to popularity, frequency of requests from the user computers 120 connected to ISP 101, expected popularity and so forth. Also statistical analyses of actual usage are preferably shared between ISP 101 and the CDN itself, for example in order to improve local service through ISP 101. If an object is to be removed from the CDN, then preferably CDN server 140 communicates with proxy 111 to remove the object.
Optionally and preferably, CDN server 140 provides such objects to ISP 101 through a CDN management interface 160, which preferably resides at ISP 101. In addition, CDN server 140 communicates with ISP 101 regarding objects to be removed from local storage 112 through CDN management interface 160.
CDN management interface 160 preferably communicates directly with proxy 111 to add and remove objects from local storage 112. More preferably, local storage 112 comprises a regular cache space 162, for storing any type of data or content as is currently known in the art; and a CDN cache space 164, for storing objects received from the CDN itself. CDN management interface 160, and hence the CDN itself, optionally and preferably controls storage of objects in CDN cache space 164, including determining when to remove such objects. By “cache space” it is meant any type of storage or cache, which may optionally comprise more than one such storage or cache; and/or dynamic storage or cache that is not fixed and/or which may be “virtual”, in the sense that designation as any particular type of cache space may be determined with regard to each object individually or to a collection of a plurality of objects.
In stage 6A, in which the flow proceeds with regard to the CDN proxy cache, a decision is made, according to the search results. If the object is found, the proxy sends a response to the end user computer with the requested object (stage 7A). Otherwise the request is preferably forwarded to the content provider origin site or server, for delivery by the content provider to the user computer (and optionally, additionally or alternatively, to the proxy at the ISP) (stage 8A).
In stage 6B, in which the flow proceeds with regard to the regular proxy cache, a decision is made, according to the search results. If the object is found, the proxy sends a response to the end user with the requested object (stage 7B). Otherwise the request is preferably forwarded to the Internet in stage 8B (if the domain is served by a different CDN, the request is preferably forwarded to the nearest replica of that CDN).
The CDN, through CDN manager 308, can preferably decide to increase or decrease the TTL (time to live) of the content more than proxy 111 itself, optionally depending upon the content provider which uses the CDN and hence which preferably provides input regarding such parameters as TTL for managing the local CDN cache space 164.
Without wishing to be limited by certain functionality or closed list of benefits, this embodiment is beneficial to the ISP, content provider and CDN since for every cache optimization performed by the content provider, caching is rendered more efficient for all of the parties involved, including the end user customer, in turn reducing the cost and amount of unnecessary outbound traffic. Furthermore, the content provider may optionally receive further services and/or an additional layer or level of service from the CDN, without requiring additional construction of infrastructure by the CDN and also without requiring the CDN to incur additional bandwidth costs.
While the invention has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments, it will be appreciated that many variations, modifications and other applications of the invention may be made.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/IB2009/054727 | 10/26/2009 | WO | 00 | 5/25/2011 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61193092 | Oct 2008 | US |
