System and Method for Processing DNS Queries

• US 20090106211A1
• Filed: 12/10/2008
• Published: 04/23/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: VeriSign, Inc.
• Original Assignee: VeriSign, Inc.
• Inventors: Balogh, Aristotle Nicolas
• Granted Patent: US 8,630,988 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2315 Optimistic concurrency control
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2358 Change logging, detection, and notification replication G06F16/27
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2365 Ensuring data consistency and integrity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/245 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2471 Distributed queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5018 Thread allocation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/505 considering the load
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/546 Message passing systems or structures, e.g. queues
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/959 Network
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/966 Distributed
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99938 Concurrency, e.g. lock management in shared database
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99952 Coherency, e.g. same view to multiple users
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and system for high-speed database searching with concurrent updating, without the use of database locks or access controls, for large database systems. Specifically, a plurality of search queries may be received over a network, the database may be searched, and a plurality of search replies may be sent over the network. While searching the database, new information received over the network may be incorporated into the database by creating a new element based on the new information and writing a pointer to the new element to the database using a single uninterruptible operation.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a first back-end lookup computer storing a first plurality of domain name service (DNS) records, the back-end lookup computer being configured to receive multiplexed DNS queries; and

a plurality of protocol computers in communication with the back-end lookup computer over a communication network,

each of the plurality of protocol computers being configured to receive DNS queries, to identify valid DNS queries among the received DNS queries, to multiplex a plurality of valid DNS queries into a single query, and to send the single query to the lookup computer.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a second back-end lookup computer storing a second plurality of DNS records and being in communication with the plurality of protocol computers over the communication network,

wherein each of the plurality of protocol computers is configured to identify one of the first or second lookup computers as being appropriate to receive each of the DNS queries received by the protocol computer.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a central transaction processing server in communication with the back-end lookup and with the plurality of protocol computers over the communication network, the central transaction processing server configured to maintain a database including the DNS records stored by the first back-end lookup computer.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the central transaction processing server is configured to receive updates to the DNS records from the plurality of protocol computers.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the central transaction processing server is configured to provide the DNS records to the back-end lookup computer.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of protocol computers maintains state information associated with each received DNS query and includes a reference to the state information when the DNS query is multiplexed to the lookup computer.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of protocol computers further comprises:

an inbound component configured to receive the plurality of DNS queries received by the protocol computer and to multiplex the DNS queries; and

an outbound component configured to receive communications from the back-end lookup computer.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the back-end lookup computer is configured to multiplex a plurality of DNS responses, each DNS response corresponding to a DNS query received from one of the plurality of protocol computers, and to send the multiplexed DNS responses to the protocol computer from which the DNS queries were received.

9. In a system comprising a first back-end lookup computer and a plurality of protocol computers, a method comprising, at a first of the plurality of protocol computers:

receiving a plurality of DNS queries;

multiplexing the plurality of DNS queries into a first single communication;

sending the first single communication to the back-end lookup computer;

receiving a second single communication from the back-end lookup computer;

de-multiplexing the second single communication to retrieve a plurality of DNS responses, each DNS response corresponding to one of the plurality of DNS queries; and

transmitting the plurality of DNS responses.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising, at the back-end lookup computer:

de-multiplexing the first single communication received from the first of the plurality of protocol computers into the plurality of DNS queries;

constructing a DNS response to each of the plurality of DNS queries;

multiplexing the DNS responses into the second single communication; and

sending the second single communication to the first of the plurality of protocol computers.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising, at the first of the plurality of protocol computers:

selecting the back-end lookup computer from a plurality of back-end lookup computers, based on the ability of each of the plurality of back-end lookup computers to provide responses to the plurality of DNS queries received by the first of the plurality of protocol computers.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising, at the first of the plurality of protocol computers:

maintaining state information associated with each of the plurality of received DNS query; and

for each of the plurality of DNS queries, including a reference to the state information in the first single communication sent to the back-end lookup computer.