Patent ID: 11863567
Assignee: FASTLY, INC.
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 0:
1. A method of operating a cache node in a content delivery network comprising:
identifying a content request without a valid token for content not cached on the cache node;
in response to the content request, generating a synthetic response for the content request, wherein the synthetic response includes at least a request for a proof of work and fingerprinting attributes associated with an end user device that generated the content request, wherein the request for a proof of work comprises a problem to be solved by the end user device;
communicating the synthetic response to the end user device;
obtaining a response from the end user device to the synthetic response;
determining that the content request is associated with a bot based on the response;
in response to determining that the content request is associated with a bot, preventing a second content request to an origin server to obtain the content;
identifying a second content request without a valid token for second content not cached on the cache node;
in response to the second content request, generating a second synthetic response for the content request, wherein the second synthetic response includes at least a request for a proof of work and fingerprinting attributes associated with a second end user device that generated the second content request;
communicating the second synthetic response to the second end user device;
obtaining a second response from the second end user device to the second synthetic response;
determining that the second content request is not associated with a bot based on the response; and
in response to determining that the second content request is not associated with a bot:
obtaining the second content from an origin server; and
providing the second content to the second end user device.