Configurable geographic prefixes for global server load balancing
First Claim
1. An apparatus, comprising:
- a network device configurable to, for a network address that has a particular address prefix that matches a stored address prefix corresponding to a geographic region, associate said network address to said geographic region, said geographic region being different from an original geographic region that corresponds to the particular address prefix,wherein said network device is configurable as a proxy to an authoritative domain name system (DNS) server.
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Accused Products
Abstract
In a load balancing system, user-configurable geographic prefixes are provided. IP address prefix allocations provided by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and associated geographic locations are stored in a first, static database in a load balancing switch, along with other possible default geographic location settings. A second, non-static database stores user-configured geographic settings. In particular, the second database stores Internet Protocol (IP) address prefixes and user-specified geographic regions for those prefixes. The specified geographic region can be continent, country, state, city, or other user-defined region. The geographic settings in the second database can override the information in the first database. These geographic entries help determine the geographic location of a client and host IP addresses, and aid in directing the client to a host server that is geographically the closest to that client.
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Citations
15 Claims
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1. An apparatus, comprising:
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a network device configurable to, for a network address that has a particular address prefix that matches a stored address prefix corresponding to a geographic region, associate said network address to said geographic region, said geographic region being different from an original geographic region that corresponds to the particular address prefix, wherein said network device is configurable as a proxy to an authoritative domain name system (DNS) server. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A method, comprising:
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configuring a network device as a proxy to an authoritative domain name system (DNS) server; storing, in said network device, an address prefix that corresponds to a geographic region; and for a network address that has a particular address prefix that matches the stored address prefix, associating said network address to said geographic region so as to override an original geographic region that corresponds to the particular address prefix. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8)
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9. An article of manufacture, comprising:
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a machine-readable storage medium having machine-readable instructions stored thereon and executable by a processor of a network device configurable as a proxy to an authoritative domain name system (DNS) server, to; for a network address that has a particular address prefix that matches a stored address prefix corresponding to a geographic region, associate said network address to said geographic region so as to override an original geographic region that corresponds to the particular address prefix. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11)
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12. A method, comprising:
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storing, in a network device, a first geographic region that designates a location of a client device with a network address having a first address prefix; in response to a second address prefix matching the first address prefix, overriding by the network device the stored first geographic region with a second geographic region to change the designated location of the client device from the first geographic region to the second geographic region, wherein the second geographic region is different from the first geographic region. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15)
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Specification