Prior art

Here's an analysis of the most relevant prior art for US Patent 9762692, based on the provided patent text and its cited references.

The most relevant prior art documents cited by US9762692B2, as listed in its "References" section on Google Patents, are:

1. US 8,930,538 B2

• Full Citation: U.S. Patent No. 8,930,538 B2, titled “Handling long-tail content in a content delivery network (CDN)”, by Fullagar et al.
• Publication/Filing Date: Filed March 21, 2009; Granted January 6, 2015. This patent claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/042,412, filed April 4, 2008.
• Brief Description: This patent, which US9762692B2 is a Continuation-in-Part of, describes a method and system for managing "long-tail content" in a content delivery network (CDN). It tracks the popularity of content and dynamically determines which tier of servers (e.g., edge, parent, or origin) should serve a client's request based on popularity thresholds. If content is popular, it may be served from a closer edge server. If unpopular, requests may be redirected to parent or origin servers.
• Potential Anticipation (35 U.S.C. § 102): This patent is highly relevant and likely anticipates many of the core concepts of US9762692B2.
  • Claim 1 (Method): The fundamental method of obtaining a client request, checking content availability at the first server, determining popularity if not available, and then either serving from the first server (if popular) or directing the client to a second tier (intermediate tier) server (if not popular). The distinction for US9762692B2 likely lies in the explicit details of "wherein the second server comprises a first portion of the content provider's library, the first portion comprising at least the resource, wherein at least one other server in the second tier comprises a second portion of the content provider's library, wherein the first portion of the content provider's library is distinct from the second portion." While 8930538 describes redirection to parent/origin, the specific logical partitioning within the intermediate tier is a key refinement in 9762692.
  • Claim 8: The method of determining popularity by comparing a current popularity value to a threshold. This is a core teaching of 8930538.
  • Claim 9: The use of different popularity thresholds for different tiers. This tiered threshold concept is also described in 8930538.
  • Claim 10 (Framework): The content delivery framework including edge servers, parent servers, and a popularity service that makes redirection decisions based on popularity. The primary distinguishing feature in 9762692's claim 10 appears to be "wherein distinct portions of the content provider's library are logically partitioned across parent servers in the second tier."
  • Claim 15 (Method with Redirection): The selective redirection based on popularity to a second-tier server. Similar to claim 1, the distinguishing element is the explicit mention of content partitioning across multiple second-tier servers and "wherein the step of selectively redirecting the request from the client to a second tier server comprises determining to which second tier server the request should be directed, the determining step using a hash function to identify a second tier server that stores the first portion of the content provider's library." This hash-based intra-tier routing is a specific detail that may differentiate 9762692.

2. US 2003/0065762 A1

• Full Citation: U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2003/0065762 A1, titled “Configurable adaptive global traffic control and management”, by Harsch et al.
• Publication/Filing Date: Filed September 30, 2002; Published April 3, 2003.
• Brief Description: This publication details an Intelligent Traffic Manager (ITM) or Adaptive Traffic Controller (ATC) system for directing client requests to suitable network resources (e.g., servers in a CDN). The system considers various factors such as client location, network load, and configurable policies to optimize traffic routing.
• Potential Anticipation (35 U.S.C. § 102): This document anticipates the general mechanisms for initial server selection and traffic management within a CDN. It broadly covers the "server selector system" (104/106) functionality mentioned in the background of US9762692B2, which is responsible for directing clients to an initial edge server. While claims 1, 10, and 15 of US9762692B2 involve the overall flow of client requests and redirection, US 2003/0065762 A1 does not teach the specific inventive concepts of managing "long-tail content" based on popularity or the logical partitioning of content across intermediate tiers. Therefore, it describes a foundational component but does not anticipate the core novelty of US9762692B2.

3. US 7,860,964 B2

• Full Citation: U.S. Patent No. 7,860,964 B2, titled “Policy-based content delivery network selection”, by Harsch et al.
• Publication/Filing Date: Filed October 26, 2007; Granted December 28, 2010.
• Brief Description: This patent, a related ITM application, describes systems and methods for selecting content delivery networks based on predefined policies. These policies can influence how and where content is delivered to optimize factors like cost, performance, and security.
• Potential Anticipation (35 U.S.C. § 102): This patent extends the concept of traffic management by introducing policy-based selection. It anticipates the general idea of using policies to control content delivery within a CDN. However, it does not disclose the specific mechanism of using dynamic content popularity to make real-time decisions about content placement and redirection across different tiers to handle "long-tail content," nor does it describe the logical partitioning of content across servers within an intermediate tier as detailed in US9762692B2. Thus, it anticipates broader policy-driven CDN operations rather than the specific invention.

4. US 6,185,598 B2

• Full Citation: U.S. Patent No. 6,185,598 B2, titled “Optimized network resource location”, by Harsch et al.
• Publication/Filing Date: Filed May 2, 1997; Granted February 6, 2001.
• Brief Description: This patent discloses a system for optimizing the selection of network resources, particularly "repeater servers" (CDN servers), to serve client requests. It utilizes a "Best Repeater Selector" (BRS) mechanism to determine the most appropriate server based on various metrics to improve delivery efficiency.
• Potential Anticipation (35 U.S.C. § 102): This is a foundational patent for intelligent server selection in CDNs. It broadly anticipates the general concept of directing a client to an "appropriate server" based on optimization criteria (e.g., proximity, load), as generally described in the background of US9762692B2 and as a prerequisite for any content delivery system. However, this patent does not describe the inventive steps related to tracking content popularity, dynamically managing "long-tail content" across multiple tiers, or the specific methods of logically partitioning content within intermediate tiers, which are central to the claims of US9762692B2.

In summary, US 8,930,538 B2 is the most relevant prior art, directly addressing the handling of long-tail content in a CDN. The other cited patents/publications cover foundational CDN technologies like server selection and traffic management, providing the context and infrastructure upon which US9762692B2 builds, but not its specific inventive steps related to popularity-based content partitioning and intra-tier routing.