Patent ID: 8660115

Claim:
A method for distributing content in a packet-switched network comprising: receiving, by a server, from a client of one of a plurality of content providers a request for content identified by a resource identifier, wherein the resource identifier is defined by a service provider of the packet-switched network to associate a plurality of different second resource identifiers with the resource identifier, wherein each of the plurality of different second resource identifiers comprises a unique name provided by a different one of the plurality of content providers to identify the content, wherein each of the plurality of content providers is a customer of the service provider of the packet-switched network; querying, by the server, a mapping service using the resource identifier for a list of servers in the packet-switched network that store the content, wherein the mapping service is implemented in accordance with a centralized mapping server; receiving, by the server, the list of servers; and redirecting, by the server, the client to one server of the list of servers using a second resource identifier of the plurality of different second resource identifiers, wherein each of the plurality of different second resource identifiers further comprises a uniform resource locator.