Feel free to cache: Towards an open CDN architecture for cloud-based content distribution

In this paper we propose an open CDN architecture, with the goal to foster an open and competitive content distribution ecosystem. The proposed architecture is built on the sights obtained from our recent work on understanding large scale content distribution systems. The key idea is to enable content creators or providers to allow any ISP or third-party content distributor to participate collaboratively in content distribution through software-defined content distribution framework with open APIs.