STORAGE EFFICIENT CONTENT REVALIDATION FOR MULTIMEDIA ASSETS

Number: 20240236203
Published: 2024-07-11
Filed: 2024-03-22
Assignee: Disney Enterprises, Inc.
Inventors: Friedrich; Eric C. et al.
CPC: H04L67/568; G06F12/0802; G06F16/41; G06F16/48; G06F16/9574; H04L67/02
Verdict: Set aside CDN/storage caching, plumbing
Source: Google Patents · FreePatentsOnline

Abstract

Techniques relating to caching a content object are disclosed. These techniques include transmitting, from a requestor to a first server, a revalidation request relating to a content object, and receiving, at the requestor from the first server, a response to the revalidation request indicating that the content object is not modified. The response is received at the requestor based on the first server determining that metadata describing one or more characteristics of the content object is stored in a cache associated with the first server and that the content object is not stored in the cache, and in response determining whether to retrieve content object data from any server based on analyzing a metric relating to retrieving the content object.

Background

BACKGROUND

Content libraries for modern media streaming services can be extremely large. For example, a content library may be larger than the storage capacity of a single cache cluster. In this circumstance, the cache cluster can keep a selected portion of the content library assets in cache. Choosing what content to store in cache, and what to evict, is a challenging problem. A poorly designed cache system can lead to voluminous cache requests (e.g., network requests to a networked cache), which can be highly inefficient and swamp computing and network resources.

For example, a content delivery network (CDN) can include multiple levels of caching. One or more origin servers (also referred to as “origins” or “origin” herein) can be located at the center of a network and can maintain complete copies of the content library. One or more CDNs can be located at the network edge, in communication with users, and can include a cache that services a large percentage of requests from users (e.g., for the most popular content). One or more mid-tier servers, located in the middle between the origin server and the CDNs, can include additional caching to service most of the remaining requests from users (e.g., for less popular but still somewhat popular content).

CDNs can be instructed to perform frequent revalidation requests (e.g., requests to ensure that cached content has not changed or expired) on content objects (e.g. segments of streaming media) cached at the

Claims

1. A processor-implemented method, comprising: transmitting, from a requestor to a first server, a revalidation request relating to a content object; and receiving, at the requestor from the first server, a response to the revalidation request indicating that the content object is not modified, wherein the response is received at the requestor based on: the first server determining that metadata describing one or more characteristics of the content object is stored in a cache associated with the first server and that the content object is not stored in the cache, and in response determining whether to retrieve content object data from any server based on analyzing a metric relating to retrieving the content object. || 11. A system, comprising: a processor; a memory storing a program, which, when executed on the processor, performs an operation, the operation comprising: transmitting, from a requestor to a first server, a revalidation request relating to a content object; and receiving, at the requestor from the first server, a response to the revalidation request indicating that the content object is not modified, wherein the response is received at the requestor based on: the first server determining that metadata describing one or more characteristics of the content object is stored in a cache associated with the first server and that the content object is not stored in the cache, and in response determining whether to retrieve content object data from any server based on analyzing a metric relating to retrieving the content object. || 18. A method comprising: transmitting, from a content delivery network (CDN) to a mid-tier cluster, a revalidation request relating to a content object, wherein the mid-tier cluster determines that metadata relating to describing one or more characteristics of the content object is not stored in a cache associated with the mid-tier cluster, and in response the mid-tier cluster: determines whether to retrieve the content object from any server based on analyzing a metric relating to retrieving the content object; sends a request to fetch the metadata from an origin server; receives the metadata from the origin server; and stores the metadata in the cache associated with the mid-tier cluster.