APPLICATION-LAYER TRAFFIC OPTIMIZATION SERVICE MAP UPDATES

• US 20110295942A1
• Filed: 08/23/2010
• Published: 12/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Inventors: Penno, Reinaldo, Raghunath, Satish, Medved, Jan
• Granted Patent: US 8,606,847 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/021 Ensuring consistency of routing table updates, e.g. by using epoch numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/028 Dynamic adaptation of the update intervals, e.g. event-triggered updates
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/04 Interdomain routing, e.g. hierarchical routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1021 based on client or server locations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks

Abstract

Using the ALTO Service, networking applications can request through the ALTO protocol information about the underlying network topology from the ISP or Content Provider. The ALTO Service provides information such as preferences of network resources with the goal of modifying network resource consumption patterns while maintaining or improving application performance. This document describes, in one example, an ALTO server that implements enhancements to the ALTO service to enable initiating incremental updates of network and cost maps to ALTO clients upon receiving status information from a content delivery network (CDN) node.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

aggregating, with an application-layer traffic optimization (ALTO) server that stores network topology information for a network of one or more endpoints that provides a service, the endpoints into a set of one or more PIDs, wherein each PID is associated with a subset of the endpoints;

storing a first ALTO map for the network;

receiving, with the ALTO server, a status update from a first one of the endpoints that comprises information indicating a condition of the first endpoint that affects a performance of the first endpoint with respect to the service;

generating a second ALTO map, wherein the second ALTO map accounts for the received information to represent an updated ALTO topology for the network;

determining a difference between the first ALTO map and the second ALTO map; and

outputting an update message from the ALTO server to an ALTO client that comprises an incremental update of the first ALTO map to cause the ALTO client to conform a third ALTO map stored by the ALTO client to the second ALTO map.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first ALTO map is a first ALTO network map that includes PID entries to describe each of the PIDs, and further comprising:

modifying a first PID in the set of PIDs to modify an association with the first endpoint,

wherein generating a second ALTO map comprises, responsive to modifying the first PID, generating a second ALTO network map that includes PID entries to describe each of the PIDs, including the modified first PID,

wherein the second ALTO map is the second ALTO network map, and

wherein the third ALTO map is a third ALTO network map.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein modifying the first PID in the set of PIDs to modify an association with the first endpoint comprises removing an association with the first endpoint.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein modifying the first PID in the set of PIDs to modify an association with the first endpoint comprises adding an association with the first endpoint.

5. The method of claim 1,

wherein the first ALTO map is a first ALTO cost map that includes one or more cost entries that each specify a different pair of the PIDs and an associated value that represents a cost to traverse a network path between the members of the PID pair,

wherein generating a second ALTO map comprises generating a second ALTO cost map that includes one or more cost entries that each specify a different pair of the PIDs and an associated value that represents a cost to traverse a network path between the members of the PID pair and setting an associated value for a first one of the cost entries in the second ALTO cost map using the received information,

wherein the second ALTO map is the second ALTO cost map, and

wherein the third ALTO map is a third ALTO cost map.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein generating a second ALTO map comprises applying, with the ALTO server, a policy that specifies a cost modification action for the condition.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the incremental update comprises one or more instructions to cause the ALTO client to conform a third ALTO map stored by the ALTO client to the second ALTO map.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the ALTO client operates in an administrative domain that is distinct from the administrative domain of the ALTO server.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the service is selected from the group consisting of an hyper-text transfer protocol (HTTP) service, a file transfer protocol (FTP) service, a media streaming service, domain name service (DNS), and an advertising service.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the condition of the first endpoint is selected from the group consisting of a network condition, availability of a content on the first endpoint, an availability of the service, and first endpoint health.

11. An application-layer traffic optimization (ALTO) server comprising:

a network information base to store network topology information for a network of one or more endpoints that provides a service;

a network map module to aggregate the endpoints into a set of one or more PIDs, wherein each PID is associated with a subset of the endpoints;

a first ALTO map;

a resource interface to receive a status update from a first one of the endpoints that comprises information indicating a condition of the first endpoint that affects a performance of the first endpoint with respect to the service, wherein the resource interface stores the information to the network information base,

a map module to generate a second ALTO map, wherein the second ALTO map account for the received information to represent an updated ALTO topology for the network;

a difference engine to determine a difference between the first ALTO map and the second ALTO map; and

a client interface to output an update message to an ALTO client that comprises an incremental update of the first ALTO map to cause the ALTO client to conform a third ALTO map stored by the ALTO client to the second ALTO map.

12. The ALTO server of claim 11,

wherein the first ALTO map is a first ALTO network map that includes PID entries to describe each of the PIDs,

wherein the network map module modifies a first PID in the set of PIDs to modify an association with the first endpoint,

wherein the network map module, responsive to modifying the first PID, generates a second ALTO network map that includes PID entries to describe each of the PIDs, including the modified first PID, wherein the map module comprises the network map module,

wherein the second ALTO map is the second ALTO network map, and

wherein the third ALTO map is a third ALTO network map.

13. The ALTO server of claim 12, wherein the network map module modifies the first PID by removing an association with the first endpoint.

14. The ALTO server of claim 12, wherein the network map module modifies the first PID by adding an association with the first endpoint.

15. The ALTO server of claim 11,

wherein the first ALTO map is a first ALTO cost map that includes one or more cost entries that each specify a different pair of the PIDs and an associated value that represents a cost to traverse a network path between the members of the PID pair,

wherein the map module comprises a cost map module to generate a second ALTO cost map that includes one or more cost entries that each specify a different pair of the PIDs and an associated value that represents a cost to traverse a network path between the members of the PID pair,

wherein the cost map module sets an associated value for a first one of the cost entries in the second ALTO cost map using the received information

wherein the second ALTO map is the second ALTO cost map, and

wherein the third ALTO map is a third ALTO cost map.

16. The ALTO server of claim 11, wherein the map module generates the second ALTO map by applying a policy that specifies a cost modification action for the condition.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the incremental update comprises one or more instructions to cause the ALTO client to conform a third ALTO map stored by the ALTO client to the second ALTO map.

18. The ALTO server of claim 11, wherein the ALTO client operates in an administrative domain that is distinct from the administrative domain of the ALTO server.

19. The ALTO server of claim 11, wherein the service is selected from the group consisting of an hyper-text transfer protocol (HTTP) service, a file transfer protocol (FTP) service, a media streaming service, domain name service (DNS), and an advertising service.

20. The ALTO server of claim 11, wherein the condition of the first endpoint is selected from the group consisting of a network condition, availability of a content on the first endpoint, an availability of the service, and first endpoint health.

21. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions for causing a programmable processor to:

aggregate, with an application-layer traffic optimization (ALTO) server that stores network topology information for a network of one or more endpoints that provides a service, the endpoints into a set of one or more PIDs, wherein each PID is associated with a subset of the endpoints;

store a first ALTO map for the network;

receive a status update from a first one of the endpoints that comprises information indicating a condition of the first endpoint that affects a performance of the first endpoint with respect to the service;

generate a second ALTO map, wherein the second ALTO map accounts for the received information to represent an updated ALTO topology for the network;

determine a difference between the first ALTO map and the second ALTO map; and

output an update message from the ALTO server to an ALTO client that comprises an incremental update of the first ALTO map to cause the ALTO client to conform a third ALTO map stored by the ALTO client to the second ALTO map.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 21, wherein the first ALTO map is a first ALTO network map that includes PID entries to describe each of the PIDs, and wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:

modify a first PID in the set of PIDs to modify an association with the first endpoint; and

generate a second ALTO network map that includes PID entries to describe each of the PIDs, including the modified first PID,

wherein the second ALTO map is the second ALTO network map, and

wherein the third ALTO map is a third ALTO network map.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 21, wherein the first ALTO map is a first ALTO cost map that includes one or more cost entries that each specify a different pair of the PIDs and an associated value that represents a cost to traverse a network path between the members of the PID pair, and wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:

generate a second ALTO cost map that includes one or more cost entries that each specify a different pair of the PIDs and an associated value that represents a cost to traverse a network path between the members of the PID pair;

set an associated value for a first one of the cost entries in the second ALTO cost map using the received information,

wherein the second ALTO map is the second ALTO cost map, and

wherein the third ALTO map is a third ALTO cost map.