Patent ID: 8370460

Claim:
A method for performing optimized N-hit caching, wherein N is an integer value greater than 1, said method comprising: tracking content requests for a plurality of content received during a first sub-interval of a recurring interval by entering a plurality of indices to a first bit array, wherein different sets of indices of the plurality of indices represent requests for different content of the plurality of content; copying entries from the first bit array to a second bit array at the expiration of the first sub-interval to retain a copy of the content requests that were received during said first sub-interval after expiration of the first sub-interval; flushing said first bit array after copying the entries to the second bit array; tracking content requests received during a second sub-interval of the recurring interval to the first array whose entries were cleared at the expiration of the first sub-interval; hashing a request for particular content received during the second sub-interval to produce a specific set of indices; determining whether the particular content was previously requested during the first sub-interval by comparing the specific set of indices to entries of the second bit array; determining whether the particular content was previously requested during the second sub-interval by comparing the specific set of indices to entries of the first bit array; serving the particular content to an end user submitting the request for the particular content without caching the particular content when at least one index of the set of indices is not entered in the first bit array and the second bit array; caching the particular content when said each index of the set of indices is entered in at least one of the first bit array and the second bit array.