Patent ID: 8060613

Claim:
A method, in a system in which a plurality of content providers provide multiple resources to multiple clients, wherein each content provider provides at least some resources via one or more content sources associated with that content provider, and wherein at least some of said resources are to be served to clients from a shared content delivery network (CDN) formed by a plurality of repeater servers, the method comprising, at a particular repeater server in said CDN: (A) receiving, from a master server, an indication that at least one resource is no longer valid, and, in response to said receiving, causing said at least one resource to be listed as invalidated; (B) responsive to a request of the particular repeater server to serve a particular resource of a particular content provider to a particular client, determining whether said particular resource is listed as invalidated, and (C 1 ) if the particular resource is listed as invalidated, then attempting to replicate an updated copy of the particular resource on the particular repeater server from at least one content sources associated with the particular content provider, and then serving the updated copy of the particular resource to the particular client; and (C 2 ) if the particular resource is not listed as invalidated, then (c 21 ) if a copy of the particular resource is not available on the particular repeater server, attempting to replicate a copy of the particular resource on the particular repeater server from another location in the system, and then serving the copy of the particular resource to the particular client, said another location in the system being another server in the CDN or at least one content source associated with the particular content provider; otherwise (c 22 ) if a copy of the particular resource is available on the particular repeater server, serving the copy of the particular resource to the particular client.