Patents by Inventor William Crowder
William Crowder has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
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Publication number: 20230073237Abstract: A method for registering a handler in a configured sequence of handlers includes: receiving, by a processor and memory implementing a sequencer infrastructure, a configuration script defining a sequence including one or more handler identifiers and corresponding one or more handler arguments; invoking a handler initialization entry point for a handler corresponding to a handler identifier, the invoking the handler initialization entry point including: selecting, based on the corresponding one or more handler arguments, a handler type from among two or more of: a configured instance of the handler; a configured alternate handler different from the handler; an alternate sequence of handlers; an expression; and a no-op handler; and initializing a configured handler based on the handler type selected and the corresponding one or more handler arguments; and adding the configured handler to a configured sequence of handlers.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 26, 2022Publication date: March 9, 2023Applicant: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventor: William CROWDER
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Publication number: 20230040213Abstract: Examples described herein relate to apparatuses and methods for managing caching for a content delivery system, which may include receiving a content request indicating that the caching agent is requesting content data for a client, filling the content data in a first cache storage of the business logic agent, providing the cached content data to the caching agent, and while a second cache storage of the caching agent is being filled with the content data, maintaining the cached content data in response to receiving additional content requests from the caching agent. The additional content requests may indicate that the caching agent is requesting the same content data for additional clients.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 16, 2022Publication date: February 9, 2023Applicant: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventor: William Crowder
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Publication number: 20230043476Abstract: Examples described herein relate to apparatuses and methods for managing caching for a content delivery system, which may include receiving a content request indicating that the caching agent is requesting content data for a client, filling the content data in a first cache storage of the business logic agent, providing the cached content data to the caching agent, and while a second cache storage of the caching agent is being filled with the content data, maintaining the cached content data in response to receiving additional content requests from the caching agent. The additional content requests may indicate that the caching agent is requesting the same content data for additional clients.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 16, 2022Publication date: February 9, 2023Applicant: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventor: William Crowder
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Publication number: 20230035033Abstract: Examples described herein relate to apparatuses and methods for managing caching for a content delivery system, which may include receiving a content request indicating that the caching agent is requesting content data for a client, filling the content data in a first cache storage of the business logic agent, providing the cached content data to the caching agent, and while a second cache storage of the caching agent is being filled with the content data, maintaining the cached content data in response to receiving additional content requests from the caching agent. The additional content requests may indicate that the caching agent is requesting the same content data for additional clients.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 16, 2022Publication date: February 2, 2023Applicant: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventor: William Crowder
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Publication number: 20230034398Abstract: Examples described herein relate to apparatuses and methods for managing caching for a content delivery system, which may include receiving a content request indicating that the caching agent is requesting content data for a client, filling the content data in a first cache storage of the business logic agent, providing the cached content data to the caching agent, and while a second cache storage of the caching agent is being filled with the content data, maintaining the cached content data in response to receiving additional content requests from the caching agent. The additional content requests may indicate that the caching agent is requesting the same content data for additional clients.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 16, 2022Publication date: February 2, 2023Applicant: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventor: William Crowder
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Publication number: 20230026912Abstract: Examples described herein relate to systems and methods for storing content items. The methods may be implemented by a computer comprising a processor, primary storage device, secondary storage, device and network interface. The primary storage device may receive, via the network interface, a plurality of content items responsive to respective requests from clients. The plurality of content items may be distributed, via the network interface, from the primary storage device to clients responsive to the respective requests from the clients. The processor may generate a dynamic priority list for the content items based on the respective requests from the clients over time, and may write, based on the dynamic priority list, only a subset of the content items to the secondary storage device.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 1, 2022Publication date: January 26, 2023Applicant: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventor: William Crowder
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Publication number: 20230026415Abstract: A computer-implemented method, in a content delivery (CD) network that delivers content on behalf of multiple content providers. The method includes, at a server in the CDN, wherein the server is currently processing at least one other request in at least one other session: receiving a connection request from a client, the connection request being associated with a corresponding content request; determining whether handling the content request will cause the server to become overloaded; and, based on the determining in (B) and on information about the content request, conditionally (i) accepting the content request, and (ii) terminating or throttling at least one session on the server.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 1, 2022Publication date: January 26, 2023Applicant: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventors: William R. Power, Christopher Newton, Laurence Lipstone, William Crowder
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Publication number: 20230016419Abstract: Examples described herein relate to standardizing content requests and responses in a content delivery network (CDN). An edge node receives a control object including sets of instructions each implementing portions of a customer's business logic. The edge node may receive, from a client, a content request identifying a content item, and may apply a set of the instructions which causes the edge node to (i) determine whether any changes are needed for the benefit of a cache server and whether any changes are need for the benefit of an origin server, and (ii) generate a processed client request identifying the content item and including, if needed, any changes for the benefit of the cache server and the origin server. The edge node transmits the processed client request to the cache server, receives a response from the cache server, and transmits a processed client response to the client.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 23, 2022Publication date: January 19, 2023Applicant: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventors: William Crowder, Daniel Jensen, Pawel Jakobowski, Laurence Lipstone, William Power
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Publication number: 20220407941Abstract: A computer-implemented method, operable with a content delivery network (CDN) uses late binding of caching policies; by a caching node in the CDN, in response to a request for content, determining if the content is cached locally. When it is determined that said content is cached locally, then: determining a current cache policy associated with the content; and then determining, based on said current cache policy associated with the content, whether it is acceptable to serve the content that is cached locally; based on said determining, when it is not acceptable to serve the content that is cached locally, obtaining a new version of the content and then serving the new version of the content, otherwise when it is acceptable to serve the content that is cached locally, serving the content that is cached locally.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 19, 2022Publication date: December 22, 2022Applicant: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventors: Christopher Newton, William Crowder
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Patent number: 11463520Abstract: Examples described herein relate to systems and methods for storing content items. The methods may be implemented by a computer comprising a processor, primary storage device, secondary storage, device and network interface. The primary storage device may receive, via the network interface, a plurality of content items responsive to respective requests from clients. The plurality of content items may be distributed, via the network interface, from the primary storage device to clients responsive to the respective requests from the clients. The processor may generate a dynamic priority list for the content items based on the respective requests from the clients over time, and may write, based on the dynamic priority list, only a subset of the content items to the secondary storage device.Type: GrantFiled: April 27, 2020Date of Patent: October 4, 2022Assignee: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventor: William Crowder
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Patent number: 11463512Abstract: A computer-implemented method, in a content delivery (CD) network that delivers content on behalf of multiple content providers. The method includes, at a server in the CDN, wherein the server is currently processing at least one other request in at least one other session: receiving a connection request from a client, the connection request being associated with a corresponding content request; determining whether handling the content request will cause the server to become overloaded; and, based on the determining in (B) and on information about the content request, conditionally (i) accepting the content request, and (ii) terminating or throttling at least one session on the server.Type: GrantFiled: October 21, 2020Date of Patent: October 4, 2022Assignee: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventors: William R. Power, Christopher Newton, Laurence Lipstone, William Crowder
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Patent number: 11457091Abstract: Examples described herein relate to standardizing content requests and responses in a content delivery network (CDN). An edge node receives a control object including sets of instructions each implementing portions of a customer's business logic. The edge node may receive, from a client, a content request identifying a content item, and may apply a set of the instructions which causes the edge node to (i) determine whether any changes are needed for the benefit of a cache server and whether any changes are need for the benefit of an origin server, and (ii) generate a processed client request identifying the content item and including, if needed, any changes for the benefit of the cache server and the origin server. The edge node transmits the processed client request to the cache server, receives a response from the cache server, and transmits a processed client response to the client.Type: GrantFiled: June 29, 2021Date of Patent: September 27, 2022Assignee: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventors: William Crowder, Daniel Jensen, Pawel Jakobowski, Laurence Lipstone, William Power
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Publication number: 20220272160Abstract: Examples described herein relate to standardizing content requests and responses in a content delivery network (CDN). An edge node receives a control object including sets of instructions each implementing portions of a customer's business logic. The edge node may receive, from a client, a content request identifying a content item, and may apply a set of the instructions which causes the edge node to (i) determine whether any changes are needed for the benefit of a cache server and whether any changes are need for the benefit of an origin server, and (ii) generate a processed client request identifying the content item and including, if needed, any changes for the benefit of the cache server and the origin server. The edge node transmits the processed client request to the cache server, receives a response from the cache server, and transmits a processed client response to the client.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 29, 2021Publication date: August 25, 2022Applicant: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventors: William CROWDER, Daniel JENSEN, Pawel JAKOBOWSKI, Laurence LIPSTONE, William POWER
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Patent number: 11425223Abstract: A computer-implemented method, operable with a content delivery network (CDN) uses late binding of caching policies; by a caching node in the CDN, in response to a request for content, determining if the content is cached locally. When it is determined that said content is cached locally, then: determining a current cache policy associated with the content; and then determining, based on said current cache policy associated with the content, whether it is acceptable to serve the content that is cached locally; based on said determining, when it is not acceptable to serve the content that is cached locally, obtaining a new version of the content and then serving the new version of the content, otherwise when it is acceptable to serve the content that is cached locally, serving the content that is cached locally.Type: GrantFiled: June 23, 2020Date of Patent: August 23, 2022Assignee: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventors: Christopher Newton, William Crowder
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Publication number: 20220224597Abstract: Examples described herein relate to systems and methods for containing a faulty stimulus. A computer-implemented method may include listing in a suspect list every received stimulus including the faulty stimulus, and implicitly testing the stimuli by respectively acting upon those stimuli by a software application. Responsive to successfully acting upon each of the stimuli besides the faulty stimulus, each non-faulty stimulus is deleted from the suspect list and, responsive to such deletion, made available to a downstream node. Responsive to acting upon the faulty stimulus, the software application crashes which leaves the faulty stimulus listed in the suspect list. The software application then restarts and deems the faulty stimulus as being faulty based upon the faulty stimulus still being listed in the suspect list after the restart.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 29, 2022Publication date: July 14, 2022Applicant: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventor: William Crowder
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Patent number: 11368548Abstract: A computer-implemented method in a content delivery network (CDN) comprising multiple content delivery (CD) services including at least one beacon service, the method comprising: at particular CD service in the CDN: (A) obtaining and responding to at least one first request; (B) obtaining and responding to at least one second request; and (C) making a beacon request to a beacon CD service, the beacon request including particular information about: (i) the at least one first request, and (ii) the at least one second request, wherein at least some of the particular information is encoded in the beacon request, wherein the beacon request comprises an HTTP request.Type: GrantFiled: August 13, 2018Date of Patent: June 21, 2022Assignee: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventors: Laurence R. Lipstone, William Crowder, Andrew Swart, Christopher Newton, Lewis Robert Varney
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Publication number: 20220182285Abstract: Examples described herein relate to systems and methods for updating configuration data. A method implemented by a computer may include receiving updated configuration data from a control core. Earlier configuration data with a time stamp may be stored in an archive storing additional earlier configuration data with respective time stamps. Responsive to the updated configuration data not being faulty, content may be distributed using the updated configuration data. Responsive to the updated configuration data being faulty, a fault may be communicated to a monitoring system, and commands from the monitoring system may be received and executed to: revert to an earlier configuration data corresponding to a specific earlier time, and disregard any further updated configuration data from the control core until instructed otherwise by the monitoring system. Content may be distributed using the earlier configuration data to which the computer is reverted.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 14, 2021Publication date: June 9, 2022Applicant: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventor: William CROWDER
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Publication number: 20220116477Abstract: A content delivery network (CDN) includes a plurality of CDN components including at least one CDN rendezvous mechanism and at least one control core. The CDN components are controlled by control core data from the at least one control core. Some CDN components obtain CDN resources including control core data from at least some other CDN components. The CDN components use the CDN rendezvous mechanism to select one or more CDN components from which to obtain CDN resources.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 22, 2021Publication date: April 14, 2022Applicant: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventors: Laurence R. Lipstone, William Crowder, Jeffrey G. Koller, David Fullagar, Maksim Yevmenkin, Christopher Newton
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Patent number: 11303844Abstract: A computer-implemented method obtains a plurality of image files, each corresponding to an image in a video stream and builds a common file from a contiguous grouping of the plurality of image files. The video stream has a plurality of contiguous video segments, each having a first video frame, and the plurality of image files correspond to the plurality of first video frames of the plurality of video segments. The plurality of video segments are of approximately equal duration.Type: GrantFiled: September 15, 2017Date of Patent: April 12, 2022Assignee: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventors: William Crowder, Jeffrey G. Koller, David Fullagar
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Patent number: 11296928Abstract: Examples described herein relate to systems and methods for containing a faulty stimulus. A computer-implemented method may include listing in a suspect list every received stimulus including the faulty stimulus, and implicitly testing the stimuli by respectively acting upon those stimuli by a software application. Responsive to successfully acting upon each of the stimuli besides the faulty stimulus, each non-faulty stimulus is deleted from the suspect list and, responsive to such deletion, made available to a downstream node. Responsive to acting upon the faulty stimulus, the software application crashes which leaves the faulty stimulus listed in the suspect list. The software application then restarts and deems the faulty stimulus as being faulty based upon the faulty stimulus still being listed in the suspect list after the restart.Type: GrantFiled: July 6, 2020Date of Patent: April 5, 2022Assignee: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventor: William Crowder