Geolocation mapping of network devices

• US 8,180,887 B2
• Filed: 12/16/2008
• Issued: 05/15/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Li, Dan, Liu, Yunxin, Guo, Chuanxiong, Zhang, Yongguang
• Primary Examiner(s): Joo, Joshua
• Application Number:
  US12/336,163
• Publication Number:
  US 20100153540A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,246 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/238, 709/217, 709223-224
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• 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 geographic location of a network device is determined using response delay times from internet servers used as landmarks. A coordination server provides to a client a list of area landmark servers (ALS) with known geographic locations. The client probes ALSs, measures response delays, and provides results to the coordination server. The coordination server then provides to the client a list of additional city landmark servers (CLS) within the area. The client probes the CLSs and provides results to the coordination server which then determines the geographic location of the client.

Claims

1. A method of determining at a coordination server a geographic location of a network client, the method comprising:

receiving at the coordination server a request from the network client; and

determining the geographic location of the network client, wherein the determining further comprises;

determining a region in which the network client is located;

providing the network client with a first list of a first set of landmark servers in geographic areas present within the region, each landmark server of the first set of landmark servers having a respective known geographic location;

receiving first results from a probing of the first set of landmark servers, the first results comprising a relative magnitude of communication delay between the network client and each of the landmark servers of first set of landmark servers;

determining a geographic area in which the network client is located by ranking the first results based on the relative magnitude of communication delay between the network client and each of the landmark servers of the first set of landmark servers;

providing the network client with a second list of a second set of landmark servers within the determined geographic area, each landmark server of the second set of landmark servers having a respective known geographic location;

receiving second results from a probing of the second set of landmark servers, the second results comprising a relative magnitude of communication delay between the network client and each of the landmark servers of the second set of landmark servers; and

determining a city in which the network client is located by ranking the second results based on the relative magnitude of communication delay between the network client and each of the landmark servers of the second set of landmark servers.

2. The method of claim 1, the determining a region comprises comparing a network client network address with a database of known network address ranges, each address range having a corresponding country or region.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of landmark servers is randomly selected from a list of available landmark servers located in the determined region, and the second set of landmark servers is randomly selected from a list of available landmark servers located within the determined geographic area.

4. The method of claim 1, the determining the geographic area of the network client further comprises:

determining a first shortest magnitude of communication delay from the relative magnitude of communication delays in the received first results; and

using the known geographic location of the respective landmark server having the first shortest magnitude of communication delay; and

the determining the city of the network further comprises;

determining a second shortest magnitude of communication delay from the relative magnitude of communication delays in the received second results; and

using the known geographic location of the respective landmark server having the second shortest magnitude of communication delay.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the request from the network client is generated by a script executing within an internet browser of the network client.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the probing of at least one of the first set of landmark servers and the second set of landmark servers comprises a Hypertext transfer protocol/Get (HTTP/Get) request or Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) request.

7. A method of determining a geographic location of a network client, the method comprising:

receiving a request from the network client at a coordination server;

randomly selecting a first set of landmark servers that are located within a geographical region;

randomly selecting a second set of landmark servers that are located within a subarea of the geographical region based at least on first results from a first probing of the first set of landmark servers, the first results comprising a respective communication delay indicator between the network client and a respective landmark server of the first set of landmark servers; and

determining at the coordination server the geographic location of the network client based at least on second results from a second probing of the second set of landmark servers, the second results comprising a respective communication delay indicator between the network client and a respective landmark server of the second set of landmark servers and knowledge of a geographical location of at least one of the landmark servers of the second set of landmark servers.

8. The method of claim 7, a script executing within an internet browser initiates probes to gather the respective communication delay indicator between the network client and a respective landmark server of the second set of landmark servers.

9. The method of claim 7, the respective communication delay indicator between the network client and a respective landmark server of the second set of landmark servers is gathered using a Hypertext transfer protocol/Get (HTTP/Get) request or Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) request initiated by the network client.

10. The method of claim 7, the determining further comprises ranking second results from a plurality of probes by a respective magnitude of delay of traffic between the network client and a respective landmark server of the second set of landmark servers.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

determining the geographical region based at least on a network address of the network client;

providing a first list of the first set of landmark servers to the network client; and

providing a second list of the second set of landmark servers to the network client.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein at least one set of the first set of landmark servers and the second set of landmark servers are passive.

13. A system for determining a geographic location of a client on a network, the system comprising:

an application server connected to the network and configured to deliver a probing module to the client on the network, the probing module configured to execute on the client and interrogate two or more sets of randomly selected landmark servers and collect delay data; and

a coordination server connected to the network and configured to determine a geographic area in which the client is located using at least the collected delay data received from the probing module via iteratively determining a geographical boundary based at least on the collected delay data for a respective one of the sets of randomly selected landmark servers, wherein the geographical boundary determined in a current iteration is smaller than the geographical boundary determined in a previous iteration.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the probing module comprises a script configured to execute within an internet browser.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the collected delay data is gathered using a Hypertext transfer protocol/Get (HTTP/Get) request or Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) request initiated by the probing module.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the coordination server is configured to determine the geographic location of the client based at least on ranking the collected delay data from a plurality of interrogations by a magnitude of delay between the client and landmark servers of one of the sets of the two or more sets of randomly selected landmark servers.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the coordination server is configured to determine the geographic area in which the client is located by, at least:

determining a region in which the client is located based at least on a network address of the client;

configuring the probing module to probe a first set of randomly selected landmark servers in the region to determine a first geographic boundary in which the client is located; and

configuring the probing module to probe a second set of randomly selected landmark servers located within a second geographic boundary to determine a third geographic boundary, which is encompassed by the second geographic boundary, in which the client is located.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein determining a region comprises comparing the network address of the client with a database of known network address ranges, the database including one or more regions corresponding to each address range.