Method of throttling unwanted network traffic on a server

• US 8,239,537 B2
• Filed: 01/02/2008
• Issued: 08/07/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/02/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Services Incorporated (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Wood, Stephen
• Primary Examiner(s): Joo, Joshua
• Application Number:
  US12/006,294
• Publication Number:
  US 20090172162A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,679 Days
• Field of Search: 709203-207, 709223-229
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1416 Event detection, e.g. attack signature detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1441 Countermeasures against malicious traffic countermeasures against attacks on cryptographic mechanisms H04L9/002

Abstract

The invention provides a method and device for limiting unwanted network traffic, including unwanted emails. The method proceeds by assigning at least one network address to a category of network addresses based on a level of trust of the network address. Connection resources are allocated to the category. When a connection is received from a network address to which the category has been assigned, a portion of the allocated resources in the category are provided to the network address.

Claims

1. A method of limiting unwanted network traffic comprising:

assigning each of a plurality of network addresses to one of a plurality of categories of network addresses based on a level of trust specifying an amount of data each of the plurality of network addresses may transfer;

allocating connection resources to each of the plurality of categories based on a number of network addresses assigned to each of the plurality of categories and a level of trust of network addresses assigned to each of the plurality of categories;

receiving a request for a connection from a sender;

associating the request with a particular one of the plurality of categories of network addresses based on a network address associated with a network path of the request, in response to a network address of an initiator of the connection being unknown; and

providing a portion of connection resources allocated to the particular one of the plurality of categories associated with the request for the connection,

wherein connection resources allocated to a first category of the plurality of categories are sufficient to simultaneously support all connections from network addresses associated with the first category of the plurality of categories, connection resources allocated to a second category of the plurality of categories are sufficient to simultaneously support a predetermined number of connections from network addresses associated with the second category of the plurality of categories including an increase in a number of connections associated with the second category of the plurality of categories above a number of connections sufficient for the predetermined number of connections, connection resources allocated to a third category of the plurality of categories are insufficient to simultaneously support all connections from network addresses associated with the third category of the plurality of categories, and connection resources allocated to a fourth category of the plurality of categories are insufficient to support any connection associated with the fourth category of the plurality of categories to be maintained.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is performed on a simple mail transfer protocol server.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the plurality of network addresses assigned to one of the plurality of categories is an internet protocol address on the internet.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the particular one of the plurality of categories of network addresses associated with the request is unknown to the initiator of the connection.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

associating the request with the particular one of the plurality of categories of network addresses based on the network address of the initiator of the connection and in response to matching the network address of the initiator of the connection with a network address in the particular one of the plurality of categories of network addresses.

6. A device for limiting unwanted network traffic comprising:

means for assigning each of a plurality of network addresses to one of a plurality of categories of network addresses based on a level of trust specifying an amount of data each of the plurality of network addresses may transfer;

means for allocating connection resources to each of the plurality of categories based on a number of network addresses assigned to each of the plurality of categories and a level of trust of network addresses assigned to each of the plurality of categories;

means for receiving a request for a connection from a sender;

means for associating the request with a particular one of the plurality of categories of network addresses based on a network address associated with a network path of the request, in response to a network address of an initiator of the connection being unknown; and

means for providing a portion of connection resources allocated to the particular one of the plurality of categories associated with the request for the connection,

wherein connection resources allocated to a first category of the plurality of categories are sufficient to simultaneously support all connections from network addresses associated with the first category of the plurality of categories, connection resources allocated to a second category of the plurality of categories are sufficient to simultaneously support a predetermined number of connections from network addresses associated with the second category of the plurality of categories including an increase in a number of connections associated with the second category of the plurality of categories above a number of connections sufficient for the predetermined number of connections, connection resources allocated to a third category of the plurality of categories are insufficient to simultaneously support all connections from network addresses associated with the third category of the plurality of categories, and connection resources allocated to a fourth category of the plurality of categories are insufficient to support any connection associated with the fourth category of the plurality of categories.

7. The device of claim 6, wherein the device is a simple mail transfer protocol server.

8. The device of claim 6, wherein one of the plurality of network addresses assigned to one of the plurality of categories is an internet protocol address on the internet.

9. The device of claim 6, wherein the one of the plurality of categories of network addresses associated with the request is unknown to the initiator of the connection.

10. The device of claim 6, further comprising:

means for associating the request with the particular one of the plurality of categories of network addresses based on the network address of the initiator of the connection and in response to matching the network address of the initiator of the connection with a network address in the particular one of the plurality of categories of network addresses.