Akamai Technologies, Inc.

Anne E Lewin, Legal Representative

Daniel M Lewin

F Thomson Leighton

Jay Parikh

Mark Tsimelzon

William Edward Weihl

Andrew Thomas Davis

Marty Kagan

Charles J Neerdaels

Samuel Dov Gendler

Srikanth Thirumalai

Ravi Sundaram

Matthew S Levine

Hariharan Rahul

Adrian Soviani

Robert D Kleinberg

Bruce Maggs

Rizwan S Dhanidina

Yoav O Yerushalmi

The disclosed technique enables a content provider to dynamically assemble content at the edge of the Internet, preferably on content delivery network (CDN) edge servers. Preferably, the content provider leverages an 'edge side include' (ESI) markup language that is used to define Web page fragments for dynamic assembly at the edge. Dynamic assembly improves site performance by catching the objects that comprise dynamically generated pages at the edge of the Internet, close to the end user. The content provider designs and develops the business logic to form and assemble the pages, for example, by using the ESI language within its development environment. Instead of being assembled by an application/web server in a centralized data center, the application/web server sends a page template and content fragments to a CDN edge server where the page is assembled. Each content fragment can have its own cacheability profile to manage the 'freshness' of the content. Once a user requests a page (template), the edge server examines its cache for the included fragments and assembles the page on-the-fly.

Dynamic content assembly on edge-of-network servers in a content delivery network

A content delivery network is enhanced to provide for delivery of cacheable markup language content files such as HTML. To support HTML delivery, the content provider provides the CDNSP with an association of the content provider's domain name (e.g., www.customer.com) to an origin server domain name (e.g., html.customer.com) at which one or more default HTML files are published and hosted. The CDNSP provides its customer with a CDNSP-specific domain name. The content provider, or an entity on its behalf, then implements DNS entry aliasing (e.g., a CNAME of the host to the CDNSP-specific domain) so that domain name requests for the host cue the CDN DNS request routing mechanism. This mechanism then identifies a best content server to respond to a request directed to the customer's domain. The CDN content server returns a default HTML file if such file is cached; otherwise, the CDN content server directs a request for the file to the origin server to retrieve the file, after which the file is cached on the CDN content server for subsequent use in servicing other requests. The content provider is also provided with log files of CDNSP-delivered HTML.

HTML delivery from edge-of-network servers in a content delivery network (CDN)

The present invention enables a content provider to dynamically assemble content at the edge of the Internet, preferably on content delivery network (CDN) edge servers. Preferably, the content provider leverages an 'edge side include' (ESI) markup language that is used to define Web page fragments for dynamic assembly at the edge. Dynamic assembly improves site performance by catching the objects that comprise dynamically generated pages at the edge of the Internet, close to the end user. The content provider designs and develops the business logic to form and assemble the pages, for example, by using the ESI language within its development environment. Instead of being assembled by an application/web server in a centralized data center, the application/web server sends a page template and content fragments to a CDN edge server where the page is assembled. Each content fragment can have its own cacheability profile to manage the 'freshness' of the content. Once a user requests a page (template), the edge server examines its cache for the included fragments and assembles the page on-the-fly.

A method is provided for processing an application on an edge server, wherein the application comprises a set of defined presentation, code and data components, each of which are preferably URI-addressable objects. In response to a client request, the presentation, code and data components are processed according to a set of metadata to generate a response, and the response is delivered to the client. The presentation components are typically content such as HTML fragments, WML fragments, or some combination thereof. The code components are typically Java servlets or beans, XSLT style sheets, or some combination thereof. The data components are typically XML files, native database formatted files, and the like. Each of the presentation, code and data components may have a distinct management profile, cacheability profile, deployment profile, invalidation profile, and security profile. These profiles are settable via metadata or other similar means. Using this framework, heterogenous components may be composed into other components and complete applications or services.

Edge side components and application programming environment for building and delivering highly distributed heterogenous component-based web applications

An Internet content delivery network deploys one or more CDN server regions in an enterprise and manages those regions as part of the Internet CDN. In one aspect of the invention, a CDN service provider (CDNSP) deploys one or more CDN regions behind an enterprise's corporate firewall(s). The regions are used to deliver Internet content&#x2014;content that has been tagged or otherwise made available for delivery over the Internet from the CDN's content servers. This content includes, for example, content that given content providers have identified is to be delivered by the CDN. In addition, the enterprise may tag intranet content, which is then also served from the CDN regions behind the firewall. Intranet content remains secure by virtue of using the enterprise's existing security infrastructure. In accordance with another aspect of the invention, the CDNSP implements access controls and deploys one or more CDN regions outside an enterprise's firewall(s) such that intranet content can be served from regions located outside the firewall(s). In this embodiment, the CDNSP can provide granular control, such as permissions per groups of users. In this way, the CDNSP, in effect, extends a conventional virtual private network (VPN) to all or a portion of the ICDN, thereby enabling the CDNSP to use multiple regions and potentially thousands of content servers available to serve the enterprise's internal content. In addition to making internal content available from the edge of the network, the CDNSP provides a mechanism by which an enterprise may share secure data with its business partner(s) without setting up any special infrastructure.

Extending an internet content delivery network into an enterprise

The invention is an intelligent traffic redirection system that does global load balancing. It can be used in any situation where an end-user requires access to a replicated resource. The method directs end-users to the appropriate replica so that the route to the replica is good from a network standpoint and the replica is not overloaded. The technique preferably uses a Domain Name Service (DNS) to provide IP addresses for the appropriate replica. The most common use is to direct traffic to a mirrored web site.

Global load balancing across mirrored data centers

Extending an Internet content delivery network into an enterprise

Growing community of inventors

Charlestown, MA, United States of America

Anne E Lewin, Legal Representative