Patent ID: 7240100
Filing Date: 2007-07-03
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method of content delivery operative in a content delivery network on behalf of participating content providers, the content delivery network managed by a content delivery network service provider and comprising a plurality of content servers and a domain name service (DNS), and wherein participating content providers identify given content to be delivered over the content delivery network, comprising: associating a content provider domain or subdomain with a domain managed by the content delivery network service provider so that DNS queries to the content provider domain or subdomain are resolved by the content delivery network domain name service; for a given piece of content identified by a participating content provider, specifying a given content control to be applied to the given piece of content prior to serving the given piece of content from the content delivery network, wherein the given content control is one of: (i) first data for specifying whether the given piece of content is to be cached at a content server in the content delivery network and, if so, for how long, (ii) second data identifying a domain of a server from which an instance of the given piece of content can be retrieved, (iii) third data for associating the given piece of content with a given participating content provider for accounting purposes, and (iv) fourth data that enforces a given authentication method or a given access control method; communicating the given content control for the given piece of content to the plurality of content servers; resolving a DNS query to the content provider domain or subdomain to an IP address associated with a given content server in the plurality of content servers, wherein the DNS query is resolved by the content delivery network domain name service using the domain managed by the content delivery network service provider in lieu of the content provider domain or subdomain; and at the given content server of the plurality of content servers: