Patent ID: 8856329

Claim:
A content delivery network (CDN) having a plurality of points of presence (POPs) for populating content, the CDN comprising: a mapper configured to determine popularity trends for a plurality of content objects, wherein: the popularity trends for the plurality of content objects are characterized by a difference between a value of a popularity variable for a given content object, in the plurality of content objects, at a first time, and a value of the popularity variable for the given content object at a second time; and the popularity variable of the given content object is based on historical request information; a policy store for storing a plurality of policies, wherein the plurality of policies comprises one or more policies for: identifying a first content object from among the plurality of content objects for storage evaluation based on a popularity trend of the first content object; and determining a target number of copies of the first content object for storage in the CDN based on the popularity trend of the first content object; and a processor, coupled to the policy store, for adding copies of the first content object to or deleting copies of the first content object from the CDN according to the target number of copies.