Local Caching Servers for LAN Content Delivery
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Solution Overview
Problem
The increased bandwidth consumption from delivering digital content to large numbers of electronic devices via the same Internet connection leads to slowed internet usage and potential bandwidth cap exceedance, negatively impacting device deployment and usage.
Innovation Solution
A system that utilizes local caching servers within local area networks to cache and distribute content, allowing devices to obtain content from the local server instead of a content delivery network, with failover to the CDN for error handling and content verification.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If content is delivered to large numbers of electronic devices using the same Internet connection, then content distribution capability is improved, but bandwidth consumption increases causing slowed Internet usage and potential bandwidth cap exceedance
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the content delivery process by introducing local caching servers within each LAN that store copies of content locally. This divides the centralized CDN delivery into distributed local delivery, allowing multiple devices to access content without repeatedly consuming external bandwidth.
Solution Approach 2:
The local caching server performs preliminary action by pre-caching content within the LAN before other devices need to access it. When content is first requested or periodically, the caching server downloads and stores it locally, so subsequent requests are served from the local cache without external bandwidth consumption.
2Reliability
If content is downloaded to thousands of electronic devices over extended periods, then complete content distribution is achieved, but deployment time becomes excessively long
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the deployment process by distributing content through multiple local caching servers across different LANs simultaneously, rather than sequentially downloading to each device. This parallelization dramatically reduces total deployment time while ensuring complete content distribution.
Solution Approach 2:
The local caching server creates local copies of content within the LAN, allowing multiple devices to access identical content simultaneously without waiting for sequential downloads. This copying mechanism ensures all devices receive complete content while reducing deployment time from thousands of hours to minutes.
3Reliability
If large amounts of data are transmitted to electronic devices, then content availability is improved, but ISP bandwidth caps are exceeded causing slowdowns and increased charges
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts the content delivery function from the external CDN and relocates it to local caching servers within the LAN. This removes the harmful bandwidth consumption from the external network while maintaining content availability locally, eliminating ISP bandwidth cap exceedance.
Solution Approach 2:
The local caching server acts as an intermediary between the CDN and electronic devices. It receives content from the CDN once and then serves it locally to multiple devices, mediating the data flow to prevent repeated external bandwidth consumption that would exceed ISP caps.
Data Source
AI summary
The disclosed embodiments provide a system that delivers content to an electronic device. The system includes a content provider that obtains a public address of the electronic device from a first request for the content from the electronic device. Next, the content provider uses the public address to identify a local caching server on a local area network (LAN) of the electronic device. Finally, the content provider provides a local address of the local caching server to the electronic device, wherein the local address is used by the electronic device to obtain the content from the local caching server and the LAN without accessing a content delivery network (CDN) outside the LAN.