Deep Packet Inspection Content Caching System
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Solution Overview
Problem
Service providers face challenges in managing and controlling the delivery of heavy bandwidth-consuming data, such as video content, which leads to network degradation and potential failures due to the inefficiencies of existing deep-packet-inspection solutions that require inspecting every packet, making it impractical to cache popular content effectively.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising a network interface with a deep-packet-inspection unit that identifies sources of content using a hash function based on packet flow addresses and ports, storing popular content for later delivery from a cache, thereby reducing the need for continuous requests to content sources and alleviating network load.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If deep-packet-inspection is applied to every packet to identify content sources, then content identification accuracy is improved, but network processing overhead increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the packet inspection process into two distinct phases: initial sampling phase where only a predefined portion of packets are deeply inspected to identify content sources, and subsequent phase where established content sources are recognized without full packet inspection. This segmentation reduces processing overhead while maintaining identification accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary deep-packet-inspection on a sample of packets during an initial phase to identify content sources and build a reference database. Once content sources are identified and stored in the database, subsequent packets from these sources are recognized without requiring the same level of inspection, thus reducing ongoing processing overhead.
2Speed
If all data is stored in caches to improve content delivery speed, then content access time is reduced, but storage requirements and inspection complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies different caching strategies to different content sources based on their identification and popularity. Instead of uniformly caching all data, it selectively caches content from identified content sources that meet certain criteria, optimizing storage utilization and reducing inspection complexity while maintaining fast delivery for popular content.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements partial caching by storing only portions of content from identified sources in the cache database, rather than caching all data. This partial action approach reduces storage requirements and inspection complexity while still achieving the goal of improving content delivery speed for frequently accessed content.
3Quantity of substance
If network bandwidth is increased to handle heavy data consumption, then network capacity is improved, but operational costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates local copies of popular content in cache databases distributed along the network path. When users request content, the system serves from these local copies rather than repeatedly transmitting from the original source, thereby reducing network bandwidth consumption and associated operational costs while maintaining service quality.
Solution Approach 2:
The system proactively caches popular content in advance based on identification from packet sampling, so that when users request content, it is already available locally. This preliminary action eliminates the need for high-bandwidth real-time transmission, reducing operational costs while maintaining network capacity for other traffic.
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus comprising a network interface to at least a first portion of a network and at least a second portion of a network. A deep-packet-inspection (DPI) unit identifies at least a source of content, the DPI unit further inspecting one or more packets provided from the identified at least a source of content over the first portion of the network, each packet having at least a specific source address and a specific destination address. A storage stores at least a portion of the content. A content delivery unit receives a request from the second portion of the network for requested content from the identified at least a source of content and responsive thereto provides the requested content, or portions of the requested content, from the storage to the second network if the requested content, or portions of the requested content, is stored in the storage, or otherwise sending the request over the first portion of the network to the identified at least a source of content for the requested content, or missing portions of the requested content.