Reusing data in content files

摘要

An embodiment for reusing data in content files includes receiving a request for a content file and retrieving a recipe that includes a series of instructions needed to compose the content file. Data identified by the recipe may then be retrieved from a content file server and the requested content file is composed based on the set of instructions in the recipe. In an example, the recipe is processed by a recipe player to compose a content file. In another embodiment, content files are stored in a cache as a series of instructions for generating them from portions of other content files. In this way, performance in a content delivery network may be improved by reusing similar data in content files.

主权项

1. A method for composing a media item comprising:
receiving, at a computer, a first request for the media item; retrieving, at the computer, at least one recipe that includes one or more instructions to compose the media item to fulfill the request, wherein the one or more instructions includes a first byte offset of the media item referencing a first audio data portion, and a second byte offset of the media item referencing a second audio data portion; checking a cache of a recipe based content delivery node to identify data stored in the cache and referenced by the at least one recipe; requesting, from a server, data that is not stored in the cache of the recipe based content delivery node but referenced by the at least one recipe; composing the media item according to the first byte offset using the requested data and the data stored in the cache of the recipe based content delivery node and referenced by the one or more instructions in the at least one recipe; selecting a video data portion of the composed media item for storing in the cache and discarding the first audio data portion from the cache; receiving, at the computer, a second request for the media item; requesting, from the server, the second audio data portion referenced by the at least one recipe; and composing the media item according to the second byte offset using the video portion of data stored in the cache and the second audio data portion requested from the server.