Routing mode and point-of-presence selection service

• US 10,091,096 B1
• Filed: 12/18/2014
• Issued: 10/02/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Howard, Craig Wesley, Uppal, Hardeep Singh
• Primary Examiner(s): Chou, Alan S
• Application Number:
  US14/575,834
• Time in Patent Office: 1,384 Days
• Field of Search: 709239
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/22 Alternate routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]

Abstract

Systems and methods for sloppy routing are provided. A client transmits a DNS query corresponding to a requested resource to a content delivery network (CDN) service provider. In some embodiments, the CDN service provider processes the DNS query to determine whether a threshold content delivery bandwidth has been exceeded by data links at cache servers. In other embodiments, additionally or alternatively, the CDN service provider determines whether a content provider has exceeded a threshold network usage that indicates a price at which the CDN service provider to provide content on behalf of the content provider. Using both or either of these thresholds, the CDN service provider can further process the DNS query by providing an alternative resource identifier or a cache IP address, both associated with an alternative POP. In some embodiments, the CDN service provider determines a routing mode for the response to the DNS query.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

under control of a hardware computing device configured with specific computer executable instructions;

obtaining, at a first domain name system (DNS) server from a client computing device, a first DNS query, wherein a first point of presence (POP) of a content delivery network (CDN) service provider includes the first DNS server, wherein the first DNS query is associated with a requested resource, wherein the requested resource is associated with a content provider, and wherein the CDN service provider is different from the content provider;

determining, at the first DNS server, a routing mode from a plurality of available routing modes for providing the requested resource based at least in part on one or more criteria, wherein the plurality of available routing modes include two or more of a default routing mode, a sloppy routing mode, a regional anycast routing mode, or an anycast routing mode;

dynamically selecting, at the first DNS server, (a) an alternative resource identifier associated with a second DNS server at a second POP of the CDN service provider or (b) an IP address of a cache component of the CDN service provider based at least in part on the determined routing mode, wherein the alternative resource identifier includes information for causing a second DNS query to resolve to the second DNS server of the CDN service provider, wherein the alternative resource identifier is a uniform resource locator (URL); and

transmitting, to the client computing device, the alternative resource identifier or the IP address in accordance with the determined routing mode.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more criteria comprises at least one of a susceptibility factor of the content provider, wherein the susceptibility factor is associated with an individual one of the plurality of available routing modes or a latency associated with an individual one of the plurality of available routing modes.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the one or more criteria further comprises at least one of a network usage associated with the content provider or a content delivery bandwidth associated with the CDN service provider, wherein the network usage is based at least in part on content provider pricing information and wherein the content delivery bandwidth is based at least in part on CDN service provider cost information.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the determined routing mode is the regional anycast routing mode and wherein the regional anycast routing mode includes a selection of IP addresses associated with one or more network nodes of a region.

5. A computer-implemented method comprising:

under control of a hardware computing device configured with specific computer executable instructions;

obtaining, at a first domain name system (DNS) server from a client computing device, a DNS query, wherein a first point of presence (POP) of a content delivery network (CDN) service provider includes the first DNS server, wherein the DNS query is associated with a requested resource, and wherein the requested resource is associated with a content provider;

dynamically determining, at the first DNS server, a routing mode from a plurality of available routing modes for providing the requested resource based at least in part on one or more criteria; and

transmitting, to the client computing device, a response to the DNS query in accordance with the determined routing mode.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the plurality of available routing modes includes two or more of a default routing mode, a sloppy routing mode, a regional anycast routing mode, or an anycast routing mode.

7. The computer-implemented of claim 5, wherein the one or more criteria comprises at least one of a susceptibility factor associated with an individual one of the plurality of available routing modes or a latency for providing the requested resource associated with individual one of the plurality of available routing modes.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the determined routing mode is a sloppy routing mode.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 further comprising:

selecting, at the first DNS server, (a) an alternative resource identifier associated with a second DNS server at a second POP of the CDN service provider or (b) an IP address of a cache component at the second POP of the CDN service provider, wherein the alternative resource identifier includes information for causing a second DNS query to resolve to the second DNS server of the CDN service provider, and wherein the alternative resource identifier is a uniform resource locator (URL).

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the response is the alternative resource identifier.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 further comprising:

obtaining the second DNS query from the client computing device at the second DNS server, wherein the second DNS query is associated with the alternative resource identifier provided by the CDN service provider;

selecting, at the second DNS server, a cache component for providing the requested resource; and

transmitting, to the client computing device, information identifying the selected cache component.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the alternative resource identifier is associated with a CNAME.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the CDN service provider is different from the content provider.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the response is an IP address, wherein the determined routing mode is the regional anycast routing mode, wherein the regional anycast routing mode includes a selection of nodes associated with a region specified by the CDN service provider.

15. A system comprising:

a first point of presence (POP) associated with a content delivery network (CDN) service provider, wherein the first POP includes a first domain name system (DNS) server that receives a first DNS query from a client computing device, wherein the first DNS query is associated with a requested resource, wherein the requested resource is associated with a content provider, and wherein the first DNS server is operative to;

select a routing mode from a plurality of available routing modes for providing the requested resource based at least in part on one or more criteria;

dynamically select (a) an alternative resource identifier associated with a second DNS server at a second POP of the CDN service provider or (b) an IP address of a cache component of the CDN service provider, wherein the alternative resource identifier includes information for causing a second DNS query to resolve to the second DNS server of the CDN service provider, and wherein the alternative resource identifier is a uniform resource locator (URL); and

transmit, to the client computing device, the alternative resource identifier or the IP address in accordance with the selected routing mode.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the selection of the alternative resource identifier or the IP address is based at least in part on the determined routing mode.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the CDN service provider is different from the content provider.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the selected routing mode is a sloppy routing mode.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the one or more criteria comprises at least one of a susceptibility factor associated with the first POP, a susceptibility factor associated with the second POP, or a latency associated with the second POP for providing the requested resource.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the selected routing mode is a regional anycast routing mode and wherein the regional anycast routing mode was selected based at least in part on the susceptibility factor of the first POP and the susceptibility factor of the second POP.

21. The system of claim 15, wherein in selecting the IP address of the cache component, the first DNS server is further operative to:

receive, from a back-end processing service, a list of IP addresses associated with one or more cache servers; and

select the IP address of the cache component from a list of IP addresses.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the IP address is associated with an anycast IP address and wherein the selected routing mode is an anycast routing mode.

23. The system of claim 15, wherein the one or more criteria comprises at least one of a network usage associated with the content provider and a content delivery bandwidth associated with the CDN service provider, wherein the network usage is based at least in part on content provider pricing information and wherein the content delivery bandwidth is based at least in part on CDN service provider cost information.

24. The system of claim 15, wherein the selected routing mode is a default routing mode, wherein the default routing mode is a latency-based routing mode that reduces a latency for providing the requested resource.