Systems and methods for identifying and characterizing client devices

• US 9,998,557 B2
• Filed: 05/04/2017
• Issued: 06/12/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Akamai Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Akamai Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Heller, Alec, Kaufman, David H., Kobrin, Eric L., Scaffidi, Stephen R., Tetzner, Walter P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Parry, Chris
• Assistant Examiner(s): Stiltner, Weiwei
• Application Number:
  US15/586,360
• Publication Number:
  US 20170302752A1
• Time in Patent Office: 404 Days
• Field of Search: 709227
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2237 Vectors, bitmaps or matrices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/28 Restricting access to network management systems or functions, e.g. using authorisation function to access network configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0823 using certificates cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication involving certificates H04L9/3263
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0876 based on the identity of the terminal or configuration, e.g. MAC address, hardware or software configuration or device fingerprint
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/105 Multiple levels of security
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/107 wherein the security policies are location-dependent, e.g. entities privileges depend on current location or allowing specific operations only from locally connected terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/24 Negotiation of communication capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

The teachings herein generally relate to client-server communications and the delivery of content over computer networks to clients, and provide improved methods, systems, and apparatus for identifying and/or characterizing client devices that are requesting content from a server. For example, based on information sent in a client device'"'"'s request for content, a web server modified in accordance with the teachings hereof can identify a set of characteristics associated with that client device. Such characteristics might include the model name of the client device, the screen dimensions of the client device, information about the particular operating system or browser name/version it is running, content formats it is capable of consuming, and so on. The web server can use this information to modify and customize its response for the given client device.

Claims

1. A method operable in one or more computers for determining information about a requesting client device, the one or more computers comprising circuitry forming one or more processors and a memory storing instructions to be executed by the one or more processors to perform the method, the method comprising:

at a first computer of the one or more computers, performing an offline configuration process comprising;

creating an index that associates each of a plurality of tokens with one or more known client devices, and creating a lexicon file of tokens used in the index, wherein the index and the lexicon file are established prior to a request for content from a client device;

send the index and the lexicon file to a second computer of the one or more computers to be stored in the second computer;

at the second computer;

receiving the request for content from a client device, the request including information about the client device;

generating one or more tokens from the information in the request, based on the lexicon file;

identifying the client device as a particular one of the one or more known client devices, based on a comparison of the one or more tokens generated from the information in the request and the index;

wherein the identification step comprises;

(i) scoring the one or more known client devices, said scoring comprising;

matching a particular token from the information in the request to a token associated with a known client device in the index, wherein the occurrence of said match increases the score of the associated known client device;

(ii) identifying the client device as the highest-scoring known client device relative to others of the one or more known client devices.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein for step (i) the particular token from the information in the request is associated with a weight based on its frequency amongst the one or more known client devices, the weight affecting the amount that the score of the associated known client device is increased upon the occurrence of said match.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of tokens in the index and the one or more tokens generated from the information in the request each represent portions of user-agent strings.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the information in the request comprises information in a user-agent header field.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the request comprises an HTTP request.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the client device is a mobile device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the second computer comprises an HTTP proxy server.

8. A system, comprising:

a first computer that has circuitry forming one or more processors and memory storing instructions to be executed by the one or more processors, the first computer operative upon execution of the instructions to perform an offline configuration process that comprises;

create an index that associates each of a plurality of tokens with one or more known client devices, and create a lexicon file of tokens used in the index, wherein the index and the lexicon file are established prior to a request for content from a client device;

send the index and the lexicon file to a second computer;

the second computer having circuitry forming one or more processors and memory storing instructions to be executed by the one or more processors, the second computer operative upon execution of the instructions to;

receive the request for content from a client device, the request including information about the client device;

(ii) generate one or more tokens from the information in the request, based on the lexicon file;

(iii) identify the client device as a particular one of the one or more known client devices, based on a comparison of the one or more tokens generated from the information in the request and the index;

wherein the second computer identifies the client device as a particular one of the one or more known client devices by;

(a) scoring the one or more known client devices, said scoring comprising matching a particular token from the information in the request to a token associated with a known client device in the index, wherein the occurrence of said match increases the score of the associated known client device;

(b) identifying the client device as the highest-scoring known client device relative to others of the one or more known client devices.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein in part (a), the particular token from the information in the request is associated with a weight based on its frequency amongst the one or more known client devices, the weight affecting the amount that the score of the associated known client device is increased by the second computer upon the occurrence of said match.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the plurality of tokens in the index and the one or more tokens generated from the information in the request each represent portions of user-agent strings.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the plurality of tokens in the index include any of:

browser name, operating system name, processor name.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the information in the request comprises information in a user-agent header field.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the request comprises an HTTP request.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the client device is a mobile device.

15. The system of claim 8, wherein the second computer comprises an HTTP proxy server.