Patent ID: 7111057

Claim:
A method for identifying and removing given content files, comprising: identifying content files to be removed from a set, or a given subset, of content servers in a content delivery network, wherein the content delivery network is operated by a service provider on behalf of participating content providers who use the content servers to cache and serve content files, and wherein the content servers in the content delivery network share content files with each other; pushing an aggregate purge request from a central server to each of a set of staging servers, each aggregate purge request including an identifier for each content file to be removed from the set, or the given subset, of content servers; periodically, having each of the set, or the given subset, of content servers obtain the aggregate purge request from a given staging server, wherein the content servers obtain the aggregate purge request independently and at different times; and at each content server that obtains the aggregate purge request, purging from the content server each content file identified in the aggregate purge request; wherein after a first content server has executed the aggregate purge request and, as a result, has purged a given content file, inhibiting the first content server from receiving the given content file from a second content server with which the first content server shares content files if the second content server has received but not then executed the aggregate purge request.