Patent ID: 9621620
Date: 2017-04-11
CPC Classifications: H04L

Claim:
1. A content providing apparatus, comprising: a determining unit configured to determine whether a content requested by a user terminal is stored in the content providing apparatus; a clustering unit configured to create a cluster in cooperation with other content providing apparatuses or register the content providing apparatus in an already configured cluster; an interrogating unit configured to, when the content is not stored in the content providing apparatus, interrogate the other content providing apparatuses in the same cluster whether the content is stored in each of the other content providing apparatuses; a first processing unit configured to receive the content from a second content providing apparatus among the other content providing apparatuses when the second content providing apparatus replies that the content is stored therein; and a second processing unit configured to transmit the stored content to the user terminal when the content is stored in the content providing apparatus, and, when the content is not stored in the content providing apparatus, store the received content from the second content providing apparatus and transmit the received content to the user terminal, wherein the interrogating unit further interrogates a content providing server on a public IP network via a service gateway whether the content is stored when the content is not stored in the content providing apparatus, wherein when the content is not stored in at least one second content providing apparatus, the first processing unit receives the content from the content providing server, and when the content is stored in at least one second content providing apparatus in the same cluster, requests the content providing server to stop delivering the content to minimize a service delay time and waste of a bandwidth, and wherein a plurality of content providing apparatuses in the same cluster store and share locally distributed contents and provide preferentially the content requested by the user.