Systems and methods for analyzing registrar and hosting provider relationships

• US 9,405,796 B2
• Filed: 02/12/2014
• Issued: 08/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: VeriSign, Inc.
• Original Assignee: VeriSign, Inc.
• Inventors: Yacoub, Souheil Ben
• Primary Examiner(s): Winder, Patrice
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tran, Nam
• Application Number:
  US14/179,017
• Publication Number:
  US 20150227581A1
• Time in Patent Office: 902 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/245 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9024 Graphs; Linked lists G06F16/9027 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• 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 61/3025 Domain name generation or assignment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5076 Update or notification mechanisms, e.g. DynDNS
• 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

Abstract

Implementations of the present teachings relate to processes and systems for analyzing registrar and hosting provider relationships. In embodiments, the processes include compiling a list of domain names and matching each domain name with a registrar name and a hosting provider name. The processes also include generating a graph based on relationships between registrars and hosting providers. For example, the graph can represent the registrars and hosting providers as nodes and edges connecting the nodes can correspond to domain names that are registered by the registrar and hosted by the hosting provider. Further, the processes include applying graph metrics to the graph to identify key characteristics of a domain market.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for analyzing domain name registrar and hosting provider relationships, the method comprising:

receiving a list of domain names;

determining registrar information and hosting provider information associated with each domain name of the list of domain names; and

generating a registrar-to-hosting-provider graph based on the registrar information and the hosting provider information associated with each domain name, wherein;

the registrar-to-hosting-provider graph comprises;

nodes representing registrars and nodes representing hosting providers; and

edges comprising one or more edge attributes representing one or more common associations between the registrars and the hosting providers;

the one or more edge attributes comprise a number of domain names of the list of domain names; and

each edge corresponds to at least one domain name associated with a registrar and a hosting provider.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

requesting the list of domain names.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the registrar information and the hosting provider information associated with each domain name of the list of domain names comprises:

querying one or more domain name information services.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the registrar-to-hosting-provider graph is a directed graph with the edges directed from the nodes representing the hosting providers to the nodes representing the registrars.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the one or more edge attributes comprise:

at least one from a group consisting of registrant information, name server information, expiration dates, registration dates, website traffic information, website type information, website language information, country information, and website content information.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

applying a betweenness centrality algorithm to the registrar-to-hosting-provider graph to determine one or more of a significant domain name registrar for a domain-specified market, a significant domain name reseller for a domain-specified market, and a significant hosting provider for a domain-specified market.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

applying a closeness centrality algorithm to the registrar-to-hosting-provider graph to determine a registrar/reseller network.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

applying a clustering algorithm to the registrar-to-hosting-provider graph to determine at least one from a group consisting of a registrar/reseller network and interconnected registrar/reseller networks.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

applying an eigenvector centrality algorithm to the registrar-to-hosting-provider graph to determine a relative importance of a hosting provider'"'"'s contribution to a registrar.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a wholesale hosting provider by calculating a high diversity value for edge attributes of a plurality of edges between a plurality of registrar nodes and a hosting provider node.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a domain name reseller by calculating a low diversity value for edge attributes of at least one edge between at least one registrar node and a hosting provider node.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the registrar information and the hosting provider information comprises determining the registrar information and hosting provider information corresponding to a first period of time, the method further comprising:

determining registrar information and hosting provider information corresponding to a second period of time;

generating a second registrar-to-hosting-provider graph based on the registrar information and the hosting provider information corresponding to the second period of time; and

presenting a visualization that comprises a visualization of the registrar-to-hosting-provider graph and a visualization of the second registrar-to-hosting-provider graph.

13. A system for analyzing domain name registrar and hosting provider relationships, the system comprising:

one or more memory devices storing instructions; and

one or more processors coupled to the one or more memory devices and configured to execute the instructions to perform operations comprising;

receiving a list of domain names;

determining registrar information and hosting provider information associated with each domain name of the list of domain names; and

generating a registrar-to-hosting-provider graph based on the registrar information and the hosting provider information associated with each domain name, wherein;

the registrar-to-hosting-provider graph comprises;

nodes representing registrars and nodes representing hosting providers; and

edges comprising one or more edge attributes representing one or more common associations between the registrars and the hosting providers;

the one or more edge attributes comprise a number of domain names of the list of domain names; and

each edge corresponds to at least one domain name associated with a registrar and a hosting provider.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

requesting the list of domain names.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein determining the registrar information and the hosting provider information associated with each domain name of the list of domain names comprises:

querying one or more domain name information services.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the registrar-to-hosting-provider graph is a directed graph with the edges directed from the nodes representing the hosting providers to the nodes representing the registrars.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the one or more edge attributes comprise:

at least one from a group consisting of registrant information, name server information, expiration dates, registration dates, website traffic information, website type information, website language information, country information, and website content information.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

applying a betweenness centrality algorithm to the registrar-to-hosting-provider graph to determine one or more of a significant domain name registrar for a domain-specified market, a significant domain name reseller for a domain-specified market, and a significant hosting provider for a domain-specified market.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

applying a closeness centrality algorithm to the registrar-to-hosting-provider graph to determine a registrar/reseller network.

20. The system of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

applying a clustering algorithm to the registrar-to-hosting-provider graph to determine at least one from a group consisting of a registrar/reseller network and interconnected registrar/reseller networks.

21. The system of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

applying an eigenvector centrality algorithm to the registrar-to-hosting-provider graph to determine a relative importance of a hosting provider'"'"'s contribution to a registrar.

22. The system of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

identifying a wholesale hosting provider by calculating a high diversity value for edge attributes of a plurality of edges between a plurality of registrar nodes and a hosting provider node.

23. The system of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

identifying a domain name reseller by calculating a low diversity value for edge attributes of at least one edge between at least one registrar node and a hosting provider node.

24. The system of claim 13, wherein determining the registrar information and the hosting provider information comprises determining the registrar information and hosting provider information corresponding to a first period of time, the operations further comprising:

determining registrar information and hosting provider information corresponding to a second period of time;

generating a second registrar-to-hosting-provider graph based on the registrar information and the hosting provider information corresponding to the second period of time; and

presenting a visualization that comprises a visualization of the registrar-to-hosting provider graph and a visualization of the second registrar-to-hosting-provider graph.