Patent Publication Number: US-9407712-B1

Title: Content delivery network for ephemeral objects

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/510,034, filed Oct. 8, 2014, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/201,707 filed Mar. 7, 2014, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,909,725, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. 
    
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention relates generally to network communications. More particularly, this invention relates to a content delivery network for ephemeral objects. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Traditional Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) work on a pull-based model. The CDN advertises a Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP) endpoint to the internet. Client requests are then routed to the closest (in internet terms) endpoint. If the target of the HTTP request is not in the cache of an endpoint, the CDN makes an origin (where the object is mastered) request, pulls the target of the HTTP request to the endpoint and caches the payload of the request. This adds additional latency. If the target of the HTTP request is in the cache, the request is served from the endpoint. These requests are served with lower latency because the object does not need to travel as far. Objects in the cache are evicted based on a predetermined model, such as a Least Recently Used model. 
     This approach is tailored for large objects that are read many times. This approach is not suitable for objects that are either read once or read very few times. 
     In view of the foregoing, it would be desirable to provide improved techniques for distributing ephemeral objects in a content delivery network. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     A computer implemented method includes receiving an object scheduled for automatic deletion after a specified viewing period, a specified number of views or a specified period of time. Object push criteria are evaluated. The object is pushed to an edge server cache in response to evaluating. The object is served in response to a request for the object. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES 
       The invention is more fully appreciated in connection with the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: 
         FIG. 1  illustrates a client device utilized in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. 
         FIG. 2  illustrates a system configured in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. 
         FIG. 3  illustrates processing operations associated with an embodiment of the invention. 
     
    
    
     Like reference numerals refer to corresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawings. 
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       FIG. 1  illustrates an electronic device  100  utilized in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. In one embodiment, the electronic device  100  is a smartphone with a processor  102  in communication with a memory  104 . The processor  102  may be a central processing unit and/or a graphics processing unit. The memory  104  is a combination of flash memory and random access memory. The memory  104  stores an ephemeral message controller  106 . The ephemeral message controller  106  includes executable instructions to display ephemeral messages. An ephemeral message may be a text, an image, a video and the like. The display time for the ephemeral message is typically set by the message sender. However, the display time may be a default setting or a setting specified by the recipient. Regardless of the setting technique, the message is transitory. That is, the message is automatically deleted after a specified viewing period, a specified number of views or a specified period of time (e.g., 24 hours). The ephemeral message controller  106  controls deletion of the object at the client device  100 , while other controllers delete network instances of the object, as discussed below. 
     The processor  102  is also coupled to image sensors  115 . The image sensors  115  may be known digital image sensors, such as charge coupled devices. The image sensors capture visual media, which is presented on display  116 . 
     A touch controller  118  is connected to the display  116  and the processor  102 . The touch controller  118  is responsive to haptic signals applied to the display  116 . In one embodiment, the ephemeral message controller  106  monitors signals from the touch controller  118 . If haptic contact is observed by the touch controller  118  then an ephemeral message is displayed until its automatic deletion time is reached. The electronic device  100  may also include other components commonly associated with a smartphone, such as a wireless signal processor  120  to support wireless communications, a power control circuit  122  and a global positioning system processor  124 . 
       FIG. 2  illustrates a system  200  configured in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. The system  200  includes a set of client devices  100 _ 1  through  100 _N. The client devices  100  are connected to a network  206 , which is any combination of wireless and wired network communication devices. A server  204  is also connected to the network  206 . The server  204  includes standard components, such as a central processing unit  210  and input/output devices  212  connected via a bus  214 . The input/output devices  212  may include a keyboard, mouse, display and the like. A network interface circuit  216  is also connected to the bus  214  to provide connectivity to network  206 . A memory  220  is also connected to the bus  214 . The memory  220  includes modules with executable instructions, such as an origin object server module  222 . The origin object server module  222  implements content delivery network operations for ephemeral objects, as discussed below. The memory  220  may also include executable instructions to support the receipt, distribution and deletion of ephemeral objects. 
       FIG. 2  also includes a set of edge servers  208 _ 1  through  208 _N. Each edge server  208  includes standard components, such as a central processing unit  230 , input/output devices  232 , a bus  234  and network interface circuit  236  to provide connectivity to network  206 . A memory  240  is also connected to the bus  234 . The memory  240  stores executable instructions, such as an edge object server module  242 . The edge object server module  242  includes executable instructions to communicate with the origin object server module  222 , receive ephemeral objects, serve ephemeral objects and automatically delete ephemeral objects after a specified viewing period, a specified number of views or a specified period of time. 
     The server  204  operates as an origin server in a content delivery network, while servers  208 _ 1  operate as edge servers in the content delivery network. Client requests for ephemeral objects from the client devices  100  are serviced by the origin server  204  and/or one of the edge servers  208 . 
       FIG. 3  illustrates processing operations associated with an embodiment of the invention. Initially, an object is received  300 . For example, a client device  100  generates an ephemeral photograph and associated text message, which is received by the server  204 . The object may be a text message with an accompanying video or simply a photograph or video without a text message. 
     The origin object server module  222  evaluates object push criteria  302 . In general, the push criteria specifies a set of policies for distributing the object to one or more edge servers  208  with the goal that a request for the object by a client device  100  is serviced by an edge server proximate to the client device  100 . The object push criteria may include content delivery network traffic patterns. In this case, an object may be pushed to a specified edge server  208  for load balancing purposes. 
     The object push criteria may include historical use patterns of a user. The historical use patterns may assess how frequently a user processes objects, when a user processes objects (e.g., only at night) and other behaviors observed through prior consumption of ephemeral objects. Simple historical use pattern rules may be relied upon, such as push an object to an edge server only if the user hit that edge server in the last twenty-four hours. 
     The object push criteria may include a social graph associated with a user. In particular, a social graph and past history of communication between two users may be used to probabilistically deliver an object to an edge server that is likely to be accessed by a message recipient. 
     The object push criteria may also include geolocation information. The GPS processor  124  of client device  100  may deliver geolocation information to the origin object server module  222 , which may be used to place an object at an edge server that is physically proximate to the geolocation of the user. 
     The next operation of  FIG. 3  is to optionally rank the object  304 . The ranking is for cache eviction management purposes. Observe that a Least Recently Used cache eviction protocol does not make sense because the object is being speculatively populated to the edge server cache. A ranking may be based upon historical use patterns of a user. For example, an object intended for a frequent user would be ranked higher than an object intended for an episodic user. Alternately, an object may be ranked based upon geolocation information such that objects pushed to edge servers close to the user are ranked higher than objects pushed to edge servers far from the user. The rank may be based upon available space versus the probability an object would be served from that edge server. 
     The next operation of  FIG. 3  is to push the object to an edge server, such as an edge server cache  306 . Observe here that the object is not sent to the edge server in response to a request, as is the typical case in a content delivery network. Rather, the object is speculatively pushed to the edge server based upon the object push criteria. 
     The next operation of  FIG. 3  is to determine whether there is a request for the object  308 . This condition may be tested at any number of edge servers. If there is such a request ( 308 —Yes), the object is served  310 . It is then determined whether deletion criteria is met  312 . For example, the deletion criteria may dictate that the object is deleted after a single viewing of 3 seconds. Alternately, the deletion criteria may specify that the object is deleted after a specified number of views (either by a single individual or different individuals). Alternately, the deletion criteria may specify that the object is deleted after a specified period of time, such as 24 hours. If the deletion criteria is not met ( 312 —No), the edge server waits for additional requests for the object  308 . If the deletion criteria is met ( 312 —Yes), the object or objects are deleted  314 . This operation may entail deletion of the object at a number of edge servers. Therefore, the system determines if there is problem in the deletion process  316 . For example, origin object server module  222  may supervise this deletion process. If there is no problem ( 316 —No), then processing is complete. If there is a problem, ( 316 —Yes), any number of remedial actions may be taken, including, if necessary, disabling any edge server containing the object  318 . Different deletion strategies may be deployed. For example, one may delete every instance of the object except one instance, sever the one instance and then delete the final (one) instance. Alternately, the object may be served and then all deletion operations may be performed. 
     An embodiment of the present invention relates to a computer storage product with a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer code thereon for performing various computer-implemented operations. The media and computer code may be those specially designed and constructed for the purposes of the present invention, or they may be of the kind well known and available to those having skill in the computer software arts. Examples of computer-readable media include, but are not limited to: magnetic media, optical media, magneto-optical media and hardware devices that are specially configured to store and execute program code, such as application-specific integrated circuits (“ASICs”), programmable logic devices (“PLDs”) and ROM and RAM devices. Examples of computer code include machine code, such as produced by a compiler, and files containing higher-level code that are executed by a computer using an interpreter. For example, an embodiment of the invention may be implemented using JAVA®, C++, or other object-oriented programming language and development tools. Another embodiment of the invention may be implemented in hardwired circuitry in place of, or in combination with, machine-executable software instructions. 
     The foregoing description, for purposes of explanation, used specific nomenclature to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that specific details are not required in order to practice the invention. Thus, the foregoing descriptions of specific embodiments of the invention are presented for purposes of illustration and description. They are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed; obviously, many modifications and variations are possible in view of the above teachings. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical applications, they thereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the invention and various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. It is intended that the following claims and their equivalents define the scope of the invention.