Method, apparatus, and system for determining a location corresponding to an IP address

• US 9,813,309 B2
• Filed: 03/13/2015
• Issued: 11/07/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Advanced New Technologies Company Limited (Ant Group Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
• Inventors: Li, Xiaojian, Hong, Manhuo
• Primary Examiner(s): Bui, Jonathan
• Application Number:
  US14/657,691
• Publication Number:
  US 20150264008A1
• Time in Patent Office: 970 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/604 Address structures or formats
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/668 Internet protocol [IP] address subnets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/69 using geographic information, e.g. room number
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming

Abstract

Determining a location corresponding to an Internet Protocol (IP) address includes collecting an IP address and location information corresponding to the IP address, wherein the location information corresponding to the IP address includes information identifying a location from which a terminal associated with the IP address accesses a network, obtaining one or more pieces of IP address geographic coordinate data for the IP address using the IP address and the location information corresponding to the IP address, determining geographic coordinates corresponding to the IP address based at least in part on the one or more pieces of IP address geographic coordinate data, determining an IP address field based at least in part on the geographic coordinates corresponding to the IP address, and determining a location corresponding to the IP address field.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

collecting an Internet Protocol (IP) address and location information corresponding to the IP address, wherein the location information corresponding to the IP address includes information identifying a location from which a terminal associated with the IP address accesses a network;

obtaining one or more pieces of IP address geographic coordinate data for the IP address using the IP address and the location information corresponding to the IP address;

determining geographic coordinates corresponding to the IP address based at least in part on the one or more pieces of IP address geographic coordinate data;

determining an IP address set based at least in part on the geographic coordinates corresponding to the IP address; and

determining a location corresponding to the IP address set.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the IP address and location information corresponding to the IP address being collected is among a plurality of IP addresses and location information is respectively corresponding to the plurality of IP addresses.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the IP address set being determined is among a plurality of IP address sets determined based at least in part on respective geographic coordinates corresponding to each of the plurality of IP addresses.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the determining of the IP address set comprises segmenting the plurality of IP addresses into the plurality of IP address sets.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the determining of the geographic coordinates corresponding to the IP address based at least in part on the one or more pieces of IP address geographic coordinate data comprises:

determining, for each of the plurality of IP addresses, a respective weight of each of the one or more pieces of IP address geographic coordinate data corresponding to a particular IP address of the plurality of IP addresses; and

determining the geographic coordinates corresponding to the particular IP address based at least in part on the weight of each of the one or more pieces of IP address geographic coordinate data corresponding to the particular IP address.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the determining, for each IP address, the weight of each of the one or more pieces of IP address geographic coordinate data corresponding to the particular IP address comprises:

acquiring the one or more pieces of IP address geographic coordinate data that occur s within a predetermined range of locations corresponding to the IP address; and

determining the weight of each of the one or more pieces of IP address geographic coordinate data according to a number of days on which one or more pieces of IP address geographic coordinate data occur within the predetermined range of locations.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the determining of the geographic coordinates corresponding to the particular IP address based at least in part on the weight of each of the one or more pieces of IP address geographic coordinate data corresponding to the particular IP address comprises:

determining geographic coordinates in the IP address geographic coordinate data having a greatest weight among the one or more pieces of IP address geographic coordinate data corresponding to the particular IP address to be the geographic coordinates corresponding to the particular IP address.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the determining of the geographic coordinates corresponding to the particular IP address based at least in part on the weight of each of the one or more pieces of IP address geographic coordinate data corresponding to the particular IP address comprises:

extracting a threshold number of pieces of IP address geographic coordinate data having greatest weight among one or more pieces of IP address geographic coordinate data corresponding to the particular IP address; and

determining the geographic coordinates corresponding to the particular IP address based at least in part on distances between locations corresponding to the threshold number of pieces of IP address geographic coordinate data having the greatest weight.

9. The method of claim 3, wherein the determining of the plurality of IP address sets based at least in part on respective geographic coordinates corresponding to each of the plurality of IP addresses comprises:

ranking the collected IP addresses according to a predetermined order;

determining a respective distance between the corresponding geographic coordinates corresponding to each pair of adjacent IP addresses of the ranked collected IP addresses; and

dividing the collected IP addresses into the plurality of IP address sets according to the respective distances between the geographic coordinates corresponding to each pair of adjacent IP addresses.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the dividing of the plurality of collected IP addresses into the plurality of IP address sets according to the respective distances between the geographic coordinates corresponding to each pair of adjacent IP addresses comprises:

regarding a smaller IP address of two adjacent IP addresses which are an nth pair of adjacent IP addresses whose adjacent distance exceeds a threshold distance as an ending IP address of an nth IP address set;

regarding a larger IP address of two adjacent IP addresses which are an (n−

1)th pair of adjacent IP addresses whose adjacent distance exceeds the threshold distance as a beginning IP address of the nth IP address set; and

determining based on the nth IP address set, wherein n is an integer greater than or equal to 1 and wherein, when n is equal to 1, the first IP address is regarded as the starting IP address of the 1st IP address set.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the dividing of the collected IP addresses into the plurality of IP address sets according to the respective distances between the geographic coordinates corresponding to each pair of adjacent IP addresses comprises:

determining a mean distance between the geographic coordinates corresponding to each particular IP address in a particular IP address set and the geographic coordinates corresponding to an IP address before the particular IP address to determine whether the mean distance exceeds a threshold mean distance; and

in the event that the mean distance exceeds the threshold mean distance, determining all IP addresses arranged in order before the particular IP address within the particular IP address set to be a new IP address set, wherein the IP address before the particular IP address is regarded as an ending IP address of the new IP address set and the original starting IP address of the particular IP address set is regarded as a starting IP address of the new IP address set, and wherein the particular IP address and all the IP addresses arranged in order following the particular IP address are determined to belong to another new IP address set, wherein the particular IP address is regarded as a starting IP address of the other new IP address set and the ending IP address of the particular IP address set is regarded as an ending IP address of the other new IP address set.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

measuring a quantity of missing IP addresses between each pair of adjacent IP addresses in a particular IP address set; and

in the event that the measured quantity of missing IP addresses between a particular pair of adjacent IP addresses exceeds a threshold quantity, further dividing the particular IP address set according to the particular pair of adjacent IP addresses.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of the location further comprises:

receiving an IP address for which a location is to be determined;

determining the IP address set to which the IP address for which the location is to be determined belongs; and

determining the geographic coordinates corresponding to the IP address set associated is with the IP address for which the location is to be determined.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending, to a user, context-based information according to the location corresponding to the IP address set.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the context-based information corresponds to one of a product and a service available within a predetermined range of geographic locations in which the location corresponding to the IP address set is located.

16. A device comprising:

a collecting module configured to collect an IP address and location information corresponding to the IP address, wherein the location information corresponding to the IP address includes information identifying a location from which a terminal associated with the IP address accesses a network;

a processing module configured to obtain one or more pieces of IP address geographic coordinate data for the IP address using the IP address and the location information corresponding to the IP address;

a first determining module configured to determine geographic coordinates corresponding to the IP address based at least in part on the one or more pieces of IP address geographic coordinate data;

an IP address set-dividing module configured to determine an IP address set based at least in part on the geographic coordinates corresponding to the IP address; and

a second determining module configured to determine a location corresponding to the IP address set.

17. The device of claim 16, further comprising:

a receiving module configured to receive an IP address for which a location is to be determined;

the first determining module configured to determine the IP address set to which the IP address for which the location is to be determined belongs; and

the second determining module configured to determine the geographic coordinates corresponding to the IP address set associated with the IP address for which a location is to be determined.

18. The device of claim 16, wherein the IP address and location information corresponding to the IP address collected by the collecting module is among a plurality of IP addresses and corresponding location information collected by the collecting module.

19. The device of claim 18, wherein the IP address set determined by the IP address set-dividing module is among a plurality of IP address sets determined, by the IP address set-dividing module, based at least in part on respective geographic coordinates corresponding to each of the plurality of IP addresses.

20. The device of claim 19, wherein the IP address set-dividing module segments the plurality of IP addresses into the plurality of IP address sets.

21. A computer program product, the computer program product being embodied in a tangible non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions that are executed to perform the steps of:

collecting an IP address and location information corresponding to the IP address, wherein the location information corresponding to the IP address includes information identifying a location from which a terminal associated with the IP address accesses a network;

obtaining one or more pieces of IP address geographic coordinate data for the IP address using the IP address and the location information corresponding to the IP address;

determining geographic coordinates corresponding to the IP address based at least in part on the one or more pieces of IP address geographic coordinate data;

determining an IP address set based at least in part on the geographic coordinates corresponding to the IP address; and

determining a location corresponding to the IP address set.

22. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein the IP address and location information corresponding to the IP address being collected is among a plurality of IP addresses and location information respectively corresponding to the plurality of IP addresses.

23. The computer program product of claim 22, wherein the IP address set being determined is among a plurality of IP address sets determined based at least in part on respective geographic coordinates corresponding to each of the plurality of IP addresses.

24. The computer program product of claim 23, wherein the determining of the IP address set comprises segmenting the plurality of IP addresses into the plurality of IP address sets.