Method for caching and delivery of compressed content in a content delivery network

Abstract

A content delivery network (CDN) edge server is provisioned to provide last mile acceleration of content to requesting end users. The CDN edge server fetches, compresses and caches content obtained from a content provider origin server, and serves that content in compressed form in response to receipt of an end user request for that content. It also provides “on-the-fly” compression of otherwise uncompressed content as such content is retrieved from cache and is delivered in response to receipt of an end user request for such content. A preferred compression routine is gzip, as most end user browsers support the capability to decompress files that are received in this format. The compression functionality preferably is enabled on the edge server using customer-specific metadata tags.

Description

[0001] This application is a division of Ser. No. 10 / 194,043, filed Jul. 11, 2002. [0002] This application contains subject matter protected by copyright.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] 1. Technical Field [0004] The present invention relates generally to techniques for selectively storing content in a compressed form in a content delivery network edge server cache and for serving the content to an end user browser. [0005] 2. Description of the Related Art [0006] A content delivery network (“CDN”) is a collection of content servers and associated control mechanisms that offload work from Web site origin servers by delivering content on their behalf to end users. A well-managed CDN achieves this goal by serving some or all of the contents of a site's Web pages, thereby reducing the customer's costs while enhancing an end user's browsing experience from the site. In operation, the CDN uses a request routing mechanism to locate a CDN content server close to the client to serve each r...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0012] In a preferred embodiment, compression metadata is defined for given compressible file types. A first metadata tag controls the edge server to take uncompressed content from an origin server and to apply the first routine to compress the content, thereby allowing the edge server to make more efficient use of its cache space. When a request for such content is received at the edge server, it is typically served as-is, namely, in the same compressed form in which it was cached. A second metadata tag controls the edge server to simply cache content in its uncompressed form (if cacheable) and, using the second routine, to compress the content when a request for compressed content is received at the edge server. Preferably the first and second routines are gzip. Because the majority of browsers in use today support gzipped content, content associated with the first or second metadata tags is delivered to the end user in a compressed form to provide last mile accelerated delivery.

[0013] Preferabl

Problems solved by technology

While browsers have had the capability to decompress content for years, most servers do not for various reasons, primarily due to issues involving compatibility, processor workload and complexity of content management.

While content delivery network service providers (CDNSPs)

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