Patent ID: 8510415

Claim:
A data distribution method, comprising: obtaining a data download request from a client in an edge network; obtaining a content ID of data under a specific protocol, wherein the content ID is carried in the data download request; searching for an edge network content ID that corresponds to the content ID and at least one additional content ID, wherein the edge network content ID is used to identify data contents already available inside the edge network; and obtaining corresponding client information by using the edge network content ID as an index, and returning data source information that carries the client information to the client; notifying, if the edge network content ID is not found, a download proxy server to download the data requested by the client to a local storage device; calculating and storing the edge network content ID of the data; receiving the edge network content ID returned by a download server, and sending the edge network content ID and the data source information that carries local storage device information to the client; wherein if the edge network content ID corresponding to the content ID is not found, before the download proxy server finishes downloading the data to the local storage device, the method further comprises: downloading a part of file data according to preset rules and calculating out a temporary content ID of the edge network; searching stored temporary content IDs of the edge network; calculating check data of the data corresponding to a matching temporary content ID of the edge network specific to a currently used download protocol if any matching temporary content ID of the edge network is found; sending an edge network ID of the data to the client if the check data is determined to be the same as check data of the data being downloaded currently; and sending the calculated temporary content ID of the edge network to the client, if the check data is determined to be different from the check data of the data being downloaded currently.