Patent ID: 7929429

Claim:
A method operative in a content delivery network having a set of server nodes organized into regions, wherein the server nodes provide delivery of content on behalf of participating content providers, comprising: for a given content provider origin server, generating a map identifying a set of alternate paths that may be used for edge server to content provider origin server communications, wherein the map identifies a set of alternate paths, and wherein each alternate path includes at least one content delivery network server node; upon receipt at a particular edge server of a request for an object, determining whether the object is available for delivery from the particular edge server; if the object is not available for delivery from the particular edge server, selecting a path over which the particular edge server should go forward to the content provider origin server to attempt to obtain the object, wherein the path is selected from one of the alternate paths identified in the map; and issuing a new request for the object from the particular edge server over the path.