Claims:WE CLAIM:
1. A method for achieving improved quality of service (QOS) for content delivery in a communication network, the method comprising:
receiving, by an application server, a request from a client device to deliver content to the client device;
determining, by the application server, a relative priority of each of a plurality of content delivery servers in the communication network based on at least one of one or more parameters and a configuration file;
identifying, by the application server, at least one content delivery server from the plurality of content delivery servers based on relative priority, wherein the content delivery server hosts the content that is to be delivered to the client device;
identifying, by the application server, a shortest path for the content delivery between the identified at least one content delivery server and the client device based on one or more pre-defined rules, wherein one or more network resources in the shortest path are sliced and metered based on one or more pre-defined policies; and
transmitting, by the application server, the content from the identified at least one content delivery server to the client device via the identified shortest path.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more parameters comprises at least one of client device proximity, network topology, path traffic conditions, link bandwidth, content delivery server’s concurrent content serving limits, subscriber profile, type of stream requested, availability of content at the content delivery server, number of concurrent streams at a time instant of the request, a number of requests pending in queue at the content delivery server, bit rate profiles available at the content delivery server, Just In Time packaging workflow invocation, Just in Time Transcoding workflow invocation, content delivery server cache usage.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising assigning a weight to each of the one or more parameters, wherein the weight is indicative of the importance of each of the one or more parameters.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising assigning a rank to each of the plurality of content delivery servers based on the computed relative priority.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more pre-defined rules comprises one to one, one to many, many to many, many to one relationship between the one or more parameters.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising maintaining a list of one or more alternate content delivery servers other than the identified at least one content delivery server, wherein at least one alternate content delivery server is selected from the list of the one or more alternate content delivery servers when the identified content delivery server experiences at least one of a sudden network surge or a network outage.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising proactively pre-load and pre-fetch content into a cache of the application server based on at least one of streaming profiles, bit rate profiles, client proximity, and network topology.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising monitoring the one or more parameters associated with the communication network after a pre-defined time interval.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising updating the relative priority associated with each of the plurality of content delivery servers based on the monitoring after the pre-defined time interval.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more pre-defined policies comprises content delivery server identification criteria.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration file comprises information pertaining to content hosted at each of the plurality of content delivery servers in the communication network.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the content comprises at least one of a video content, an audio content, and a multimedia content.

13. An application server to achieve improved quality of service (QoS) for content delivery in a communication network, the application server comprising:
a processor; and
a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, wherein the memory stores processor instructions, which on execution, causes the processor to:
receive a request from a client device to deliver content to the client device;
determine a relative priority of each of a plurality of content delivery servers in the communication network based on at least one of one or more parameters and a configuration file;
identify at least one content delivery server from the plurality of content delivery servers based on relative priority, wherein the content delivery server hosts the content that is to be delivered to the client device;
identify a shortest path for the content delivery between the identified at least one content delivery server and the client device based on one or more pre-defined rules, wherein one or more network resources in the shortest path are sliced and metered based on one or more pre-defined policies; and
transmit the content from the identified at least one content delivery server to the client device via the identified shortest path.

14. The application server of claim 13, wherein the one or more parameters comprises at least one of client device proximity, network topology, path traffic conditions, link bandwidth, content delivery server’s concurrent content serving limits, subscriber profile, type of stream requested, availability of content at the content delivery server, number of concurrent streams at a time instant of the request, a number of requests pending in queue at the content delivery server, bit rate profiles available at the content delivery server, Just In Time packaging workflow invocation, Just in Time Transcoding workflow invocation, content delivery server cache usage.

15. The application server of claim 13, wherein the processor is configured to assign a weight to each of the one or more parameters, wherein the weight is indicative of the importance of each of the one or more parameters.

16. The application server of claim 13, wherein the processor is configured to assign a rank to each of the plurality of content delivery servers based on the computed relative priority.

17. The application server of claim 13, wherein the one or more pre-defined rules comprises one to one, one to many, many to many, many to one relationship between the one or more parameters.

18. The application server of claim 13, wherein the processor is configured to maintain a list of one or more alternate content delivery servers other than the identified at least one content delivery server, wherein at least one alternate content delivery server is selected from the list of the one or more alternate content delivery servers when the identified content delivery server experiences at least one of a sudden network surge or a network outage.

19. The application server of claim 13, wherein the processor is configured to proactively pre-load and pre-fetch content into a cache of the application server based on at least one of streaming profiles, bit rate profiles, client proximity, and network topology.

20. The application server of claim 13, wherein the processor is configured to monitor the one or more parameters associated with the communication network after a pre-defined time interval.

21. The application server of claim 20, wherein the processor is configured to update the relative priority associated with each of the plurality of content delivery servers based on the monitoring after the pre-defined time interval.

Dated this 11th day of March, 2016

SWETHA S.N
OF K & S PARTNERS
AGENT FOR THE APPLICANT
, Description:TECHNICAL FIELD
This disclosure relates generally to content delivery in a Software Defined Network (SDN) Controller based communication network, and more particularly to a system and a method for achieving improved quality of service (QoS) for content delivery in a communication network.