Application layer traffic optimization enhancements for mobile devices

• US 8,751,613 B1
• Filed: 11/09/2010
• Issued: 06/10/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Inventors: Medved, Jan, Ward, David, Guichard, James
• Primary Examiner(s): Etienne, Ario
• Assistant Examiner(s): Williams, Clayton R
• Application Number:
  US12/942,678
• Time in Patent Office: 1,309 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 709/220
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/021 Ensuring consistency of routing table updates, e.g. by using epoch numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/028 Dynamic adaptation of the update intervals, e.g. event-triggered updates
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/04 Interdomain routing, e.g. hierarchical routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1021 based on client or server locations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks

Abstract

In general, techniques are described for enhancing the Application-Layer Traffic Optimization (ALTO) service to supplement network topological grouping with location-based groupings to account for endpoint mobility. For example, as described herein, an ALTO server maintains physical location information for a network of one or more endpoints that provides a service. A PID generator of the ALTO server aggregates the endpoints into a set of one or more PIDs based at least on the physical location information for the endpoints, wherein each PID is associated with a subset of the endpoints. The ALTO server generates network and cost maps for the ALTO service that include PID entries to identify a respective subset of the endpoints associated with each of the set of PIDs and cost entries that incorporate cost that reflect physical distances among endpoints.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

aggregating, based at least on physical location information for one or more endpoints that is stored by an application-layer traffic optimization (ALTO) server, the endpoints into a set of multiple PIDs by associating endpoints that are proximate to each other with respective PIDs in the set of PIDs;

generating, with the ALTO server, a first ALTO network map that includes a plurality of PID entries that each identifies a subset of the endpoints associated with a corresponding one of the set of PIDs;

receiving, with the ALTO server, a location update from a first endpoint of the endpoints, wherein the location update includes physical location information for the first endpoint; and

modifying a first PID and a second PID in the set of PIDs to transfer an association with the first endpoint from the first PID to the second PID when the physical location information for the first endpoint specifies a nearer proximity of the first endpoint to a subset of the endpoints associated with the second PID than to a subset of the endpoints associated with the first PID.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a second ALTO network map, wherein the second ALTO network map accounts for the physical location information to represent an updated ALTO topology for the network;

determining a difference between the first ALTO network map and the second ALTO network map; and

outputting an update message from the ALTO server to an ALTO client that comprises an incremental update of the first ALTO map to cause the ALTO client to conform a third ALTO map stored by the ALTO client to the second ALTO map.

3. The method of claim 1,

wherein the physical location information for each of the endpoints specifies a geographical location, and

wherein endpoints are proximate to each other when a physical distance between the endpoints is less than a threshold distance.

4. The method of claim 1,

wherein the physical location information for each of the endpoints specifies an identifier of a serving node, and

wherein a subset of endpoints are proximate to each other when the physical location information for each of the subset of the endpoints specifies the same serving node identifier.

5. The method of claim 1,

wherein the ALTO server stores network topology information for a network that includes the endpoints, and further comprising:

aggregating the endpoints into a first set of multiple PIDs based at least on the physical location information, wherein each of the first set of PIDs is associated with a subset of the endpoints;

aggregating the endpoints into a second set of multiple PIDs based at least on the network topology information, wherein each of the second set of PIDs is associated with a subset of the endpoints; and

intersecting the first set of PIDs and the second set of PIDs to generate a set of one or more intersection PIDs, wherein each of the intersection PIDs is associated with a subset of the endpoints,

wherein the PID entries of the first ALTO network map includes PID entries to identify the respective subset of the endpoints associated with each of the set of intersection PIDs.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

generating a first ALTO cost map for the first set of PIDs that includes one or more cost entries that each specify a different pair of the first set of PIDs and an associated value that represents a cost to traverse a path between members of a respective pair of the first set of PIDs;

generating a second ALTO cost map for the second set of PIDs that includes one or more cost entries that each specify a different pair of the second set of PIDs and an associated value that represents a cost to traverse a network path between members of a respective pair of the second set of PIDs;

generating an intersection ALTO cost map for the set of intersection PIDs by combining associated values of cost entries of the first ALTO cost map and associated values of cost entries of the second ALTO cost map to produce intersection costs entries that each specify a different pair of the intersection PIDs and an associated value that represents a total cost to traverse a path between members of a respective pair of intersection PIDs.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the ALTO server supports a service selected from the group consisting of an hyper-text transfer protocol (HTTP) service, a file transfer protocol (FTP) service, a media streaming service, domain name service (DNS), and an advertising service.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising outputting the first ALTO network map to an ALTO client.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more of the endpoints are mobile devices that are each assigned a network address, wherein a network address for a mobile device indicates a location of the mobile device in a routing topology of a network.

10. A method comprising:

aggregating, based at least on physical location information for one or more endpoints that is stored by an application-layer traffic optimization (ALTO) server, the endpoints into a set of multiple PIDs by associating endpoints that are proximate to each other with respective PIDs in the set of PIDs;

generating, with the ALTO server, a first ALTO network map that includes a plurality of PID entries that each identifies a subset of the endpoints associated with a corresponding one of the set of PIDs;

generating, with the ALTO server, an ALTO cost map comprising one or more cost map entries for the first ALTO network map, wherein each of the cost map entries specifies a cost to traverse a path between a pair of the set of multiple PIDs;

receiving, with the ALTO server, a location update from a first endpoint of the endpoints, wherein the location update includes physical location information for the first endpoint; and

upon receiving the location update with the ALTO server, modifying a cost map entry of the ALTO cost map, for a PID pair that includes a first one of the set of multiple PIDs that includes the first endpoint, based at least on the physical location information for the first endpoint.

11. An application-layer traffic optimization (ALTO) server comprising:

a processor operatively coupled to a memory;

an endpoint locations module to store physical location information for one or more endpoints;

a PID generator, executed by the processor, to aggregate the endpoints into a set of multiple PIDs based at least on the physical location information by associating endpoints that are proximate to each other with respective PIDs in the set of PIDs;

a network map module to generate a first ALTO network map that includes a plurality of PID entries that each identifies a subset of the endpoints associated with a corresponding one of the set of PIDs; and

an endpoint interface to receive a location update from a first endpoint of the endpoints, wherein the location update includes physical location information for the first endpoint, wherein the endpoint interface stores the physical location information for the first endpoint to the endpoint locations module,

wherein the PID generator modifies a first PID and a second PID in the set of PIDs to transfer an association with the first endpoint from the first PID to the second PID when the physical location information for the first endpoint specifies a nearer proximity of the first endpoint to a subset of the endpoints associated with the second PID than to a subset of the endpoints associated with the first PID.

12. The ALTO server of claim 11, further comprising:

a proximity calculator to determine proximities among endpoints in the set of endpoints.

13. The ALTO server of claim 12,

wherein the physical location information for each of the endpoints specifies a geographical location, and

wherein the proximity calculator determines proximities among endpoints by calculating distance between pairs of endpoints using the respective geographical locations of the endpoints.

14. The ALTO server of claim 12,

wherein the physical location information for each of the endpoints specifies an identifier of a serving node, and

wherein the proximity calculator determines proximities among endpoints by determining whether the physical location information for the each of the endpoints specifies the same serving node identifier.

15. The ALTO server of claim 11, further comprising:

a network information base to store network topology information for a network that includes the endpoints,

wherein the PID generator aggregates the endpoints into a first set of multiple PIDs based at least on the physical location information, wherein each of the first set of PIDs is associated with a subset of the endpoints,

wherein the PID generator aggregates the endpoints into a second set of multiple PIDs based at least on the network topology information, wherein each of the second set of PIDs is associated with a subset of the endpoints,

wherein the PID generator aggregates intersects the first set of PIDs and the second set of PIDs to generate a set of one or more intersection PIDs, wherein each of the intersection PIDs is associated with a subset of the endpoints, and

wherein the PID entries of the first ALTO network map includes PID entries to identify the respective subset of the endpoints associated with each of the set of intersection PIDs.

16. The ALTO server of claim 15, further comprising:

a cost map module to generate a first ALTO cost map for the first set of PIDs that includes one or more cost entries that each specify a different pair of the first set of PIDs and an associated value that represents a cost to traverse a path between members of a respective pair of the first set of PIDs,

wherein the cost map module generates a second ALTO cost map for the second set of PIDs that includes one or more cost entries that each specify a different pair of the second set of PIDs and an associated value that represents a cost to traverse a network path between members of a respective pair of the second set of PIDs,

wherein the cost map module generates an intersection ALTO cost map for the set of intersection PIDs by combining associated values of cost entries of the first ALTO cost map and associated values of cost entries of the second ALTO cost map to produce intersection costs entries that each specify a different pair of the intersection PIDs and an associated value that represents a total cost to traverse a path between members of a respective pair of intersection PIDs, and further comprising;

a client module to output the first ALTO network map and the intersection ALTO cost map as ALTO service maps for an ALTO service.

17. The ALTO server of claim 11, further comprising:

a cost map module to generate an ALTO cost map comprising one or more cost map entries for the first ALTO network map;

a client interface to receive identifiers, from a network device, for a source endpoint and one or more destination endpoints, wherein the client interface determines, from the first ALTO network map and ALTO cost map, associated costs for each of the destination endpoints to the source endpoint.

18. The ALTO server of claim 17, wherein the client interface returns a ranking of the one or more destination endpoints according to the associated costs to the network device.

19. The ALTO server of claim 17, wherein the client interface returns the associated costs to the network device.

20. An application-layer traffic optimization (ALTO) server comprising:

a processor operatively coupled to a memory;

an endpoint locations module to store physical location information for one or more endpoints;

a PID generator, executed by the processor, to aggregate the endpoints into a set of multiple PIDs based at least on the physical location information by associating endpoints that are proximate to each other with respective PIDs in the set of PIDs;

a network map module to generate a first ALTO network map that includes a plurality of PID entries that each identifies a subset of the endpoints associated with a corresponding one of the set of PIDs;

a cost map module to generate an ALTO cost map comprising one or more cost map entries for the first ALTO network map, wherein each of the cost map entries specifies a cost to traverse a path between a pair of the set of multiple PIDs; and

an endpoint interface to receive a location update from a first endpoint of the endpoints, wherein the location update includes physical location information for the first endpoint, wherein the endpoint interface stores the physical location information for the first endpoint to the endpoint locations module,

wherein the cost map module, upon the endpoint interface receiving the location update, modifies a cost map entry of the cost map entries of the ALTO cost map, for a PID pair that includes a first PID that includes the first endpoint, based at least on the physical location information for first endpoint.

21. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instruction for causing one or more programmable processors to:

aggregate, based at least on physical location information for one or more endpoints that is stored by an application-layer traffic optimization (ALTO) server, the endpoints into a set of multiple PIDs by associating endpoints that are proximate to each other with respective PIDs in the set of PIDs;

generate a first ALTO network map that includes a plurality of PID entries that each identifies a subset of the endpoints associated with a corresponding one of the set of PIDs;

receive, with the ALTO server, a location update from a first endpoint of the endpoints, wherein the location update includes physical location information for the first endpoint; and

modify a first PID and a second PID in the set of PIDs to transfer an association with the first endpoint from the first PID to the second PID when the physical location information for the first endpoint specifies a nearer proximity of the first endpoint to a subset of the endpoints associated with the second PID than to a subset of the endpoints associated with the first PID.