Edge State Persistence in CDN Cache Nodes
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing content delivery networks face challenges in maintaining state information for end user devices across multiple requests, leading to inefficiencies in tracking user activities and providing personalized content, as HTML requests are stateless and require additional tracking elements like cookies, which are difficult to manage.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a content delivery network with cache nodes that persist edge state data for end user devices, allowing for tracking and management of user activities across multiple requests, and transferring this information between cache nodes for seamless content delivery and personalized services.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If tracking elements like cookies are used to maintain state information across requests, then user activity tracking capability is improved, but device complexity and management difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces cache nodes as intermediaries between end users and origin servers. These cache nodes maintain edge state information locally, acting as mediators that preserve user state without requiring complex tracking elements on end user devices. The cache nodes store and manage state information centrally, simplifying the overall system architecture while maintaining state persistence across requests.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent shifts the state management dimension from the end user device level to the network infrastructure level (cache nodes). By moving state persistence from cookies on user devices to edge state data in cache nodes, the system resolves the contradiction by changing where state information is maintained, thereby reducing device complexity while preserving state information.
2Speed
If content is cached at distributed cache nodes, then content delivery speed is improved, but state information consistency across nodes becomes difficult to maintain
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements feedback mechanisms where cache nodes exchange edge state information with each other and with origin servers. When state information changes at one cache node, this information is propagated to other relevant cache nodes through feedback loops, ensuring consistency across the distributed network while maintaining fast local content delivery.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a universal edge state data structure that can be shared and recognized across all cache nodes in the network. This universal state representation allows any cache node to understand and act upon state information from any other node, maintaining consistency across the distributed system while enabling fast local responses.
3Productivity
If edge state data is persisted at cache nodes, then analytics and personalized content effectiveness is improved, but data management complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments state management responsibilities by creating dedicated edge state data structures at cache nodes that are separate from content caching. This segmentation allows analytics functions to access state information without interfering with content delivery operations, improving analytics effectiveness while managing complexity through clear functional separation.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems, methods, apparatuses, and software for caching tracking elements of network content are provided herein. In one example, a method of operating a cache node of a content delivery network that caches content for delivery to end user devices is provided. The method includes receiving content requests from an end user device for content cached by the cache node and responsively providing the content for delivery to the end user device, processing the content requests to determine a edge state that corresponds to the end user device, transferring information related to the edge state for delivery to at least one other cache node of the content delivery network for handling of content requests received at the at least one other cache node.