● Covered by 1 source · 1 reportMedium impact1 neutral
Cloudflare launches Origin Range Requests for efficient large file delivery
Key points
- Cloudflare launched Origin Range Requests feature.
- Optimizes HTTP range request caching for large files.
- Reduces wasted bandwidth and disk operations.
- Available as a self-service feature on all plans.
New Range Request Handling
Cloudflare introduced Origin Range Requests, a new self-service feature designed to improve the efficiency of delivering large files via its content delivery network. This feature reworks how Cloudflare's cache processes HTTP range requests, which are commonly used by applications like video players and download managers to retrieve specific parts of a file rather than the entire resource.
Addressing Previous Inefficiencies
Previously, Cloudflare's range caching could lead to inefficiencies, such as pulling 128 MiB from an origin for a small client request, even if the client only needed a few megabytes. This resulted in wasted network bandwidth and unnecessary disk operations across Cloudflare's data centers. The prior implementation required manual tuning of range sizes, which created a trade-off between many small origin requests and downloading excessive data.
Performance Improvements
The new implementation has already demonstrated performance gains. For Cloudflare's R2 object storage, the p99 time to first byte decreased by approximately half. Subsequent improvements also led to a 6% reduction in tiered cache traffic for R2 and similar workloads. The new system eliminates the need for users to tune range sizes or contact support.
Availability and Configuration
Origin Range Requests is now available on all Cloudflare plans as a self-service option. Users can activate the feature through a Cache Rule, and Cloudflare automatically manages the range request optimization without requiring further configuration. This change focuses on how Cloudflare satisfies client range requests, rather than altering the client's initial request for a range.
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Primary sources
CVE CVE-2023-503877.5 HIGHReporting from
Cloudflare released Origin Range Requests, a new self-service feature that optimizes how its CDN handles HTTP range requests for large files. This update reduces wasted bandwidth and disk operations by dynamically adjusting range sizes, improving performance for services like R2 object storage.