Patent ID: 7707314

Claim:
A content delivery network (CDN) for delivering content over the Internet, the CDN comprising: a domain resolution service (DNS) server, wherein: the DNS server is configured to receive a first domain resolution request and to produce a first DNS solution, the DNS server is configured to receive a second domain resolution request and to produce a second DNS solution, the DNS server is configured to match processing power for caching servers referenced in domain resolution requests for a same domain, and the first and second domain resolution requests correspond to the same domain; a plurality of caching servers, wherein the plurality of caching servers correspond to a plurality of addresses; and an interface with the Internet, wherein: the interface is configured to: receive a plurality of domain resolution requests, and transmit a plurality of DNS solutions, the plurality of DNS solutions comprise the first and second DNS solutions, the plurality of domain resolution requests comprise the first and second domain resolution requests, the first DNS solution comprises a first plurality of addresses corresponding to at least a first subset of the plurality of caching servers, the second DNS solution comprises a second plurality of addresses corresponding to at least a second subset of the plurality of caching servers, the first DNS solution is different from the second DNS solution in that the second subset includes an address for a caching server not in the first subset, and the second subset is chosen to match a processing power of the first subset.