Method and apparatus for caching in a networked environment

Abstract

In general, methods and apparatus according to the invention mitigate these and other issues by implementing caching techniques described herein. So when one device in a home network downloads and plays a particular content (e.g., a video, song) from a given site, the content is cached within the network such that the same content is available to be re-played on another device without re-downloading the same content from the Internet.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method implemented in a network, comprising:
 receiving a request to download content from the Internet;   prior to downloading the requested content from the Internet, determining whether the requested content is available in a cache within the network, wherein determining whether the requested content is available in a cache within the network includes determining if the content is stored in a centralized cache in a single location within the network; and   in response to the request, providing the requested content from one of the cache in the network or from the Internet.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising tracking per-user preferences to determine types of content to maintain in the cache. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising monitoring the browsing habits of users and providing granular data analysis. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the network consists of an in-home network. 
     
     
         5 . A method implemented in a network, comprising:
 receiving a request to download content from the Internet;   prior to downloading the requested content from the Internet, determining whether the requested content is available in a cache within the network, wherein determining whether the requested content is available in a cache within the network includes determining if the content is stored in a distributed cache in a plurality of different locations within the network, as well as within a local cloud comprising one or more additional networks; and   in response to the request, providing the requested content from one of the cache in the network or from the Internet,   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , further comprising crawling the network to search for media within the local cloud before downloading content from the Internet. 
     
     
         7 . A method implemented within a network, comprising:
 receiving a request to download content from the Internet;   determining whether the requested content is available in a cache within the network; and   if the requested content is not available within the cache, saving the content in the cache,   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the cache comprises a distributed cache implemented on a plurality of different devices in the network, the method further comprising:
 executing a cache-coherency application on certain of the plurality of devices.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein executing the cache-coherency application includes maintaining a shared index of the distributed cache. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein executing the cache-coherency application includes having access to an index of the distributed cache. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising migrating contents of the distributed cache from one of the devices to another of the devices. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising identifying strategic locations within the network to migrate contents of the distributed cache. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising identifying different types of information to be stored at respective different locations within the network. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein migrating includes broadcasting a message from the one of the devices to other of the devices and determining the another of the devices based on whether the another of the devices has enough storage available. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the network consists of an in-home network. 
     
     
         16 . A method implemented in a network, comprising:
 receiving a request to download content from the Internet;   tracking per-user preferences to determine content to maintain in a cache for the network;   maintaining content in the cache based on the per-user preferences.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein per-user preferences include specifying whether or not content from certain sites should be cached. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein per-user preferences include specifying whether or not content requested by certain users should be cached. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein per-user preferences include specifying whether or not certain types of content should be cached. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the network consists of an in-home network.