Anycast routing techniques in a network

• US 10,432,710 B2
• Filed: 04/21/2017
• Issued: 10/01/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Level 3 Communications LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Level 3 Communications LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Maslak, Joelle T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Barker, Todd L
• Application Number:
  US15/494,032
• Publication Number:
  US 20170310744A1
• Time in Patent Office: 893 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1021 based on client or server locations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1023 based on a hash applied to IP addresses or costs
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context

Abstract

Aspects of the present disclosure involve systems, methods, computer program products, and the like, for managing the distribution of content and/or communications from a telecommunications or computer network to an end user of the network. In general, the system receives a request for content from a user of the network and analyzes the request to determine an estimated geographic region and/or an access network associated with the requesting device. Based on the determined geographic region or access network, a networking device returns a specific anycast IP address from which the content may be received. In this manner, the content providing network may utilize multiple anycast IP addresses within the network to provide content to one or more end users of the network. The specific anycast IP address is provided to an end user device to obtain the requested content.

Claims

1. A method for servicing requests for content in a content delivery network (CDN), the method comprising:

receiving, from a requesting device, a request for an Internet Protocol (IP) address for a content servicing device in the CDN;

obtaining an approximate geographic location of the requesting device based at least on the request for the IP address;

selecting a geographic-specific anycast IP address based at least on the approximate geographic location of the requesting device, the geographic-specific anycast IP address selected from a plurality of anycast IP addresses utilized in the CDN;

transmitting the geographic-specific anycast IP address to the requesting device, wherein the geographic-specific anycast IP address is associated with a first content servicing device; and

determining that the approximate geographic location of the requesting device is different from a geographic region of an end user device based on the end user device utilizing the geographic-specific anycast IP address to receive the content from a second content servicing device that is different from the first content servicing device.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

analyzing the received request for the IP address of the requesting device; and

obtaining a network identification from the received request, wherein selecting the geographic-specific anycast IP address is further based on the network identification.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein content is provided to a computing device from a content server maintained by a network identified by the network identification.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the requesting device is a domain name server (DNS) device in communication with the CDN.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving an indication of a high load condition at the first content servicing device; and

transmitting a unicast IP address for a content providing device, wherein the content providing device is located separately from the content servicing device, wherein the end user device is in communication with the CDN and receives content from the content providing device separate from the content servicing device based at least on receiving the unicast IP address, the content providing device in a different geographic region as the end user device.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

accessing a database of stored estimated geographic locations of IP addresses to determine the approximate geographic location of the requesting device;

receiving a connection request from an end user device to receive content from the CDN; and

updating the database of stored estimated geographic locations based on receiving the connection request from the end user.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

associating the second content servicing device with a second geographic-specific anycast address;

causing the first content servicing device to broadcast the geographic-specific anycast address;

causing the second content servicing device to broadcast both the geographic-specific anycast address and the second geographic-specific anycast address; and

receiving a connection request from the end user device to receive content from the CDN using the geographic-specific anycast address.