Method and system for intelligent routing of requests over EPP

• US 8,327,019 B2
• Filed: 08/18/2009
• Issued: 12/04/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/18/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: VeriSign, Inc.
• Original Assignee: VeriSign, Inc.
• Inventors: Gould, James, Jain, Mahendra, Lloyd, Colin
• Primary Examiner(s): Gillis, Brian J
• Application Number:
  US12/543,462
• Publication Number:
  US 20110047292A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,204 Days
• Field of Search: 709/226, 709/227, 709/238, 709/242
• US Class Current: 709/238
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/50 Network service management, e.g. ensuring proper service fulfilment according to agreements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/302 Administrative registration, e.g. for domain names at internet corporation for assigned names and numbers [ICANN]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/563 Data redirection of data network streams

Abstract

Method and system for routing EPP requests over a network are provided. The EPP request can include XML namespace information and optionally XML sub-product information. A gateway can receive the request and analyze the namespace and in some instances, sub-product information to determine the service to which the request is directed. Thereupon, the gateway can route the request to the appropriate service by consulting a routing table that can have status and connectivity information for all the available services.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for routing requests received using an Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP), the method comprising:

receiving, from a requestor, a request to connect to a service via the EPP, the request including an Extensible Markup Language (XML), wherein the XML includes information about the service to which the request is directed;

verifying that the request is an EPP request by determining a structure of the request and comparing the structure with a standard EPP structure;

analyzing the XML to determine XML namespace information;

determining the service to which the request is directed based at least in part on the XML namespace information; and

routing the request to the service thereby providing the requestor access to the service.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein prior to routing the request:

determining whether the service is active or not; and

routing the request to the service only in the event that the service is active.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein in the event that it is determined that the service is not active, sending a notification to the requestor indicating unavailability of the service.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

analyzing the request to determine presence of a XML subproduct information; and

in the event that XML subproduct information is present, determining the service to which the request is directed based at least in part on the XML namespace information and the XML subproduct information.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the XML namespace corresponds to a service category.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a response from the service upon completion of a task associated with the request; and

communicating the response to the requestor.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

receiving metadata associated with one or more parameters corresponding to a service level agreement, the metadata being included in the response; and

generating a report associated with the service level agreement, the report based at least in part on the metadata.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the metadata includes information about execution time of the request.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving status and connectivity information associated with the service; and

updating a lookup table with the status and connectivity information associated with the service.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the connectivity information includes information about EPP handlers, EPP poll handlers, and EPP extensions associated with the service.

11. A device for routing requests to a plurality of services, the device comprising:

a receiving module receiving a request via an extensible provisioning protocol (EPP) to access a service from among the plurality of services, the request including an Extensible Markup Language (XML) code, the XML code including information about the service to be accessed;

wherein the receiving module further verifies that the request is an EPP request by determining a structure of the request and comparing the structure with a standard EPP structure;

an analysis module coupled to the receiving module and analyzing the XML code and extracting XML namespace information, the XML namespace information being indicative of the service to be accessed; and

a routing module coupled to the analysis module and determining a status of the service based at least in part on information included in a routing table and route the request to the service.

12. The device of claim 11 wherein the routing table comprises information associated with the status and connectivity of the plurality of services.

13. The device of claim 12 wherein the status and the connectivity information is dynamically updated.

14. The device of claim 11 wherein the receiving module receives requests over a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) transport.

15. The device of claim 11 wherein the receiving module receives requests over a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) transport.

16. The device of claim 11 wherein the analysis module analyzes the XML code to determine presence of a XML subproduct information.

17. The device of claim 16 wherein the analysis module extracts the XML subproduct information and determines a sub-service associated with the XML subproduct information.

18. A system for routing requests to a plurality of services, the system comprising:

a service management server including information associated with the plurality of services;

a gateway coupled to the service management server and receiving one or more requests for accessing a service from among the plurality of services, the requests being received using an extensible provisioning protocol (EPP);

wherein the gateway further verifies that the request is an EPP request by determining a structure of the request and comparing the structure with a standard EPP structure; and

one or more service hosting servers coupled to the service management server and the gateway and hosting the plurality of services.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the service management server receives data from each of the plurality of services, the data indicating status, type, and connectivity information for each of the plurality of services.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the service management server communicates the status, type, and connectivity information to the gateway.

21. The system of claim 18 wherein the gateway includes a routing table, the routing table including status, type, and connectivity information for each of the plurality of services.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein the routing table is dynamically updated to reflect change in the status and/or connectivity information of a service.

23. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including instructions which when executed by a processor within a device, causes the processor to execute a method for routing requests for access to one or more services, the method comprising:

receiving a request via an extensible provisioning protocol (EPP) for access to a service, the request including an Extensible Markup Language £

XML) code, wherein the XML code comprises XML namespace information;

verifying that the request is an EPP request by determining a structure of the request and comparing the structure with a standard EPP structure;

analyzing the XML code to extract the XML namespace information, the XML namespace information being indicative of the service to which the request is directed;

determining the service to which the request is directed based at least in part on the XML namespace information; and

routing the request to the service.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 23 wherein the method further comprises:

determining a XML subproduct information from the received request; and

determining a service associated with the XML subproduct information.

25. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 23 wherein the method further comprises, prior to routing the request:

determining status and connectivity information associated with each of the one or more services; and

routing requests to the one or more services based at least in part on the status and connectivity information.

26. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 25 wherein the status information includes indication of whether a service is active or inactive.

27. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 25 wherein the status and connectivity information is stored in a routing table.

28. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 27 wherein the routing table is updated dynamically to reflect changes in the status and connectivity information of each of the one or more services.