Control Plane Network for Secure Content Delivery
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Solution Overview
Problem
Content delivery networks (CDNs) lack control over content distribution, leading to unauthorized use, lack of control over content delivery, and challenges in preventing illegal redistribution, as they rely on third-party providers and ISPs, making it difficult to manage access and enforce restrictions.
Innovation Solution
A control plane network (CPN) system that includes a server with a key-value store and authentication table, enabling session tracking and authorization, and caching content from an origin server, which allows for dynamic request forwarding, session management, and enforcement of access restrictions, such as maximum concurrent sessions and geo-restrictions, using reverse-proxying HTTP cache servers and load balancers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If traditional CDN systems deliver content through third-party providers and ISPs, then content delivery efficiency is improved, but control over content distribution is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a control plane network (CPN) as an intermediary layer between the content delivery network and third-party providers. The CPN includes authentication tables and key-value stores that enable session tracking and authorization at CDN nodes, allowing the content provider to maintain control over content distribution while still utilizing third-party infrastructure for efficient delivery.
2Adaptability or versatility
If content is delivered through third-party providers, then bandwidth resources are dynamically allocated, but unauthorized use and illegal redistribution occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary authentication and authorization mechanisms before content delivery. Authentication tables are pre-populated with authorized user information, and session tracking is established in advance. This allows the system to dynamically allocate bandwidth to authorized users while automatically preventing unauthorized access and illegal redistribution through pre-established control mechanisms.
3Speed
If CDN servers cache content locally, then content delivery speed is improved, but access control and session management become difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the authentication and session management functions from the content caching functions. The control plane network maintains centralized authentication tables and key-value stores that are distributed to CDN nodes. This segmentation allows local caching for fast content delivery while centralized control planes handle session tracking and authorization, reducing the complexity burden on individual CDN servers.
Data Source
AI summary
In some embodiments, a system is a reverse-proxying HTTP cache server that handles user session management and dynamically forwards requests to origin/backend servers based on the content being requested. It caches data from origin servers in order to reduce the stress placed on each origin server. It uses encrypted authorization tokens to handle session management and is able to modify origin data on-the-fly in order to inject per-client authorization information into the data stream. It can enforce maximum concurrent session limits, user bans, limit exemptions, and time-limited live content previews.