METHOD AND SYSTEMS FOR LOCATING GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATIONS OF ONLINE USERS

• US 20080275978A1
• Filed: 07/02/2008
• Published: 11/06/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: MICROSOFT CORPORATION, INFOSPLIT, INC.
• Inventors: Houri, Cyril
• Granted Patent: US 8,239,510 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/35 involving non-standard use of addresses for implementing network functionalities, e.g. coding subscription information within the address or functional addressing, i.e. assigning an address to a function
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

A location tracking system for building a geographic location database of network nodes in a computer network includes a trace engine module configured to send trace Id commands to a plurality of user terminals. The user terminals are actively coupled to a server node so that the trace engine module is able to obtain IP address of each of the user terminals and its corresponding geographic location. A first database is configured to store IP addresses obtained by the trace engine module and their corresponding geographical locations. A second database is configured to store a set of physical connections between IP addresses obtained by the trace engine module. The system can then determine the geographical location of end user terminals who employ the database as previously populated.

Claims

1. A location tracking system for building a geographic location database of network nodes in a computer network comprising:

a trace engine module configured to send commands to a plurality of user terminals, the trace engine module to obtain an IP address of each of the user terminals and its corresponding geographic location in response to the sent commands, the trace engine module to employ a statistical analysis to determine the geographic location of at least one server node associated with the plurality of user terminals, the statistical analysis being based on a number of user terminals and their corresponding geographic location; and

a database management module to determine a percentage of user terminals connected to a first IP address from a particular geographic location, the trace engine module being to assign the particular geographic location to the first IP address when the percentage is above a predefined threshold.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising a database having a stored IP address associated with a target host, a target host n including a server node that acts as a local server to the user terminal, and the database management module to obtain an IP address and geographic location of the host that is closest to target host n.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the database management module is to obtain an IP address of the target host n−

1, connected to target host n, from the database, when the IP address of the target host n is not identified in the database.

4. A system comprising:

a location tracking system including a trace engine module, the trace engine module to send a trace Id command to a user terminal to map a network route that defines a connection between the user terminal and the location tracking system; and

a database management module to obtain the geographic location of the user terminal and an IP address of the user terminal in response to the sent commands,

wherein the location tracking system is to;

store connection information including host nodes employed in the network route, determine a number of user terminals connected to each host node,

employ a statistical analysis to determine a geographical location of the host nodes based on the number of user terminals connected to each host node and their respective geographical locations, and

store the geographical location and the associated IP address for each of the host nodes.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the database management module is to determine a percentage of user terminals connected to a particular IP address from a particular geographic location to assign and store the particular geographic location to the particular IP address when the percentage is above a predefined threshold.

6. The system of claim 5 further comprising a database to store the particular IP address associated with the particular geographic location.

7. A system comprising:

a location tracking system including a trace engine module, the trace engine module to send a trace Id command to a host to map a network route that defines a connection between the host and the location tracking system; and

a database management module to obtain the geographic location of the host and an IP address of the host in response to the sent commands,

wherein the location tracking system is to;

store connection information including nodes employed in the network route, determine a number of hosts connected to each node,

employ a statistical analysis to determine the geographical location of the nodes based on the number of hosts connected to each node and their respective geographical locations, and

store the geographical location and the associated IP address for each of the nodes.