Patent ID: 7555561

Claim:
A method of broadcasting from a proximal cache at a proximal internet protocol address (IPA) forwarding and routing information for indicating an originator storing web content data associated with an originating uniform resource locator (URL) of a web server at an originating IPA permanently storing the web content data, the method comprising the steps of: generating at the proximal IPA the originating URL for indicating the originator, generating at the proximal IPA a sourcing IPA for indicating the originator, generating at the proximal IPA a destination IPA for indicating a destination cache, generating a distance metrics for indicating a web hop distance of a number of the plurality of cooperative web caches through which the URL web content data would be communicated from a source at the sourcing IPA through a plurality of cooperative web caches to the proximal web cache at the proximal IPA, associating at the proximal IPA the sourcing IPA with the originating URL with the distance metric as the forwarding and routing information, transmitting the forwarding and routing information from the proximal cache at the proximal IPA to the destination cache at a destination IPA, the transmitting of the forwarding and routing information associating the sourcing IPA with the originating URL with the destination IPA with the distance metric, for generating a forwarding and routing table in the destination cache, and storing in the destination cache at the destination IPA in a forwarding and routing table the association between the originating URL and the sourcing IPA with the distance metric, the forwarding and routing table for determining the sourcing IPA from a URL request for forwarding and routing a request for web content data to the sourcing IPA.