Patent ID: 8886769

Claim:
A content delivery network (CDN) for streaming content over the Internet to end user systems, the CDN comprising: a content request interface that receives requests, using one or more processors, for streaming a plurality of content objects to end user systems; an edge server selection function that assigns, using one or more processors, each request to an edge server for streaming the plurality of content objects to the end user systems; a streaming function that streams, using one or more processors, the plurality of content objects to the end user systems; and a content-request function, wherein the content-request function, using one or more processors: identifies, for each request received by the content request interface, a category for each of the plurality of content objects, wherein the category for each of the plurality of content objects is identified based on an analysis of the subject matter of each of the plurality of content objects, stores the category for each of the plurality of content objects, monitors, for each request received, a first portion of each of the plurality of content objects that was streamed to a requesting end user system, wherein the first portion is less than an entire content object, generates aggregated data to determine a playback time, wherein: the playback time corresponds to a specific category of content objects of the plurality of content objects; and the playback time is equal to a statistical usage pattern of first portions of the plurality of content objects that belong to the specific category, predicts a second portion of a second content object, wherein: the second content object is not part of the plurality of content objects, the second content object is identified to be part of the specific category, and the second portion has a playback length equal to the playback time based on the second content object being identified to be part of the specific category, and causes access to the second portion of the second content object to be improved such that the second portion of the second content object is set to be provided faster in response to a request for the second content object than would otherwise occur.