Point of presence management in request routing

• US 8,468,247 B1
• Filed: 09/28/2010
• Issued: 06/18/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Richardson, David R., Cormie, John, MacCarthaigh, Colm, Redman, Benjamin W. S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Fan, Hua
• Application Number:
  US12/892,822
• Time in Patent Office: 994 Days
• Field of Search: 709/226
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/101 based on network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1021 based on client or server locations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/289 Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data consumer application, e.g. in same machine, in same home or in same sub-network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching

Abstract

A system and method for the management of client computing device DNS queries and subsequent resource requests within a content delivery network service provider domain are provided. The management of the DNS queries can include the selection of computing devices corresponding to various Point of Presence locations for processing DNS queries. Additionally, the management of the content requests can include the selection of computing devices corresponding to resource cache components corresponding to various Point of Presence locations for providing requested content. The selection of the computing devices can incorporate logic related to geographic criteria, performance threshold criteria, testing criteria, and the like.

Claims

1. A method for request routing comprising:

obtaining a DNS query from a client computing device at a first DNS server, wherein the DNS query corresponds to a requested resource associated with a first resource identifier and wherein the first DNS server corresponds to a content delivery network service provider;

selecting a second DNS server from one or more alternative DNS servers as a function of at least a calculated distance from each of the one or more alternative DNS servers and performance measurement information associated with each of the one or more alternative DNS servers, the second DNS server associated with a second resource identifier;

obtaining a second DNS query from the client computing device at the second DNS server, the second DNS query corresponding to the second resource identifier;

resolving the second DNS query, at the second DNS server, to identify a cache component for providing content associated with the original resource request; and

transmitting information identifying the identified cache component to the client computing device.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein first resource identifier corresponds to a uniform resource locator such that the DNS query resolves to a domain corresponding to at least one of a content provider and a content delivery network service provider.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein selecting the second DNS server from the identified one or more alternative DNS servers as a function of at least a calculated distance from each of the one or more alternative DNS servers includes selecting the second DNS server as a function of a calculated distance from each of the one or more alternate DNS servers and a reference node in a communication network.

4. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein selecting the second DNS server from the identified one or more alternative DNS servers as a function of at least a calculated distance from each of the one or more alternative DNS servers includes selecting the second DNS server as a function of a calculated distance from each of the one or more alternate DNS servers and the client computing device.

5. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein selecting the second DNS server from the identified one or more alternative DNS servers as a function of at least a calculated distance from each of the one or more alternative DNS servers includes determining a calculated maximum distance as a product of a latency time associated with a selected DNS server and a speed of transmission.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein selecting a second DNS server from the identified one or more alternative DNS servers as a function of a performance measurement information associated with each of the one or more alternative DNS servers includes:

determining performance measurement information for the one or more DNS servers;

determining whether the performance measurement information exceeds a minimum performance threshold; and

excluding DNS servers in which performance measurement information does not exceed the performance threshold.

7. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein the performance measurement information corresponds to a measured latency.

8. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein the performance measurement information corresponds to assigned categories associated with performance measurement.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein selecting the second DNS server from one or more alternative DNS servers includes:

determining that the first resource identifier is associated with an alternative DNS server; and

identifying the one or more alternative DNS servers that are authoritative to first DNS query.

10. A system for request routing comprising:

a first network point of presence associated with a content delivery network service provider, wherein the first network point of presence includes a DNS server that receives a DNS query from a client computing device, wherein the DNS query corresponds to a requested resource associated with a first resource identifier, and wherein the DNS server in the first network point of presence includes a hardware component and is operative to;

select a second DNS server from one or more alternative DNS servers as a function of at least a calculated distance from each of the one or more alternative DNS servers and performance measurement information associated with each of the one or more alternative DNS servers; and

transmit an alternative resource identifier corresponding to the second DNS server;

a second network point of presence associated with a content delivery network service provider, wherein the second network point of presence includes a DNS server that receives a subsequent DNS query from the client computing device, wherein the subsequent DNS query corresponds to a requested resource associated with the alternative resource identifier, and wherein the DNS server in the second network point of presence includes a hardware component and is operative to;

resolve the at least one of the DNS query and the subsequent DNS query to identify a cache component for providing content associated with the original resource request; and

transmit information identifying the identified cache component to the client computing device.

11. The system as recited in claim 10, wherein the original resource identifier corresponds to a uniform resource locator provided by the content provider such that the DNS query resolves to a domain corresponding to the content delivery network service provider.

12. The system as recited in claim 10, wherein the alternative resource identifier corresponds to a canonical name record identifier.

13. The system as recited in claim 10, wherein selecting the second DNS server from the identified one or more alternative DNS servers as a function of at least a calculated distance from each of the one or more alternative DNS servers includes selecting the second DNS server as a function of a calculated distance from each of the one or more alternate DNS servers and a reference node in a communication network.

14. The system as recited in claim 10, wherein selecting the second DNS server from the identified one or more alternative DNS servers as a function of at least a calculated distance from each of the one or more alternative DNS servers includes selecting the second DNS server as a function of a calculated distance from each of the one or more alternate DNS servers and the client computing device.

15. The system as recited in claim 10, wherein selecting the second DNS server from the identified one or more alternative DNS servers as a function of at least a calculated distance from each of the one or more alternative DNS servers includes determining a calculated maximum distance as a product of a latency time associated with a selected DNS server and a speed of transmission.

16. The system as recited in claim 10, wherein selecting a second DNS server from the identified one or more alternative DNS servers as a function of a performance measurement information associated with each of the one or more alternative DNS servers includes:

determining performance measurement information for the one or more DNS servers;

determining whether the performance measurement information exceeds a minimum performance threshold; and

excluding DNS servers in which performance measurement information does not exceed the performance threshold.

17. The system as recited in claim 16, wherein the performance measurement information corresponds to a measured latency.

18. The system as recited in claim 16, wherein the performance measurement information corresponds to an assigned category.

19. The system as recited in claim 10, wherein information identifying the identified cache component to the client computing device includes a network address of a cache component in the second network point of presence.

20. The system as recited in claim 10, wherein information identifying the identified cache component to the client computing device includes a network address of a cache component in another network point of presence.