Geographic location determination including inspection of network address

• US 20020143991A1
• Filed: 03/16/2001
• Published: 10/03/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Chow, Kingsum, Tjaden, Brian C., Dua, Sumeet
• Granted Patent: US 7,454,523 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/245
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/20 Hop count for routing purposes, e.g. TTL
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

Geographic location determination for a client is facilitated by performing a trace route between a known network device and the client. The trace route results in a list of intermediary network devices between the client and the known network device. Network addresses may be configured with geographically significant portions. Thus, network addresses for the client and/or one or more of the intermediary devices can be inspected to facilitated a geographic location determination for the client based on the geographically significant portions. An online service provider hosting network sites may prepare client activity reports for the hosted sites using the determined geographic data. The determined geographic locations may also be used to ensure compliance, such as with regulations, distribution agreements, etc., for data distributions to clients.

Claims

1. A method for geographic location determination based at least in part on inspection of a network address of a client, the method comprising:

performing a trace route between a server and the address of the client, the trace route identifying at least one domain name in a route between the server and the client;

identifying a construction format for the domain name;

identifying a geographically significant component of the domain name; and

determining a geographic location for the domain name based at least in part on the geographically significant component.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing domain names associated with a network access provider so as to identify the construction formats for said domain names;

identifying geographically significant components of said construction components; and

storing cross-references between said geographically significant components and geographic locations in a storage.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

validating said determined geographic location by performing at least one alternate geographic determination for the network address.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

determining more than one geographic location for the network address; and

ranking said determined geographic locations in accordance with the number of alternate geographic location determinations consistent with said determined geographic locations.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a regular expression corresponding to the construction format;

matching the regular expression against the domain name; and

identifying a geographically significant portion of the regular expression so as to facilitate said identifying the geographically significant component of the domain name.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said performing the trace route is performed from the server to the client.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said performing the trace route is performed from the client to the server.

8. A method for determining a geographic location for a network address, comprising:

receiving a trace route comprising first and second network host identifiers for hosts disposed between a server and a client on a network;

matching the first network host identifier to a first template;

first parsing the first network host identifier according to the first template; and

identifying an estimated geographic location for the client based at least in part on said first parsing.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

matching the second network host identifier to a second template;

second parsing the second network host identifier according to the second template; and

revising said estimated geographic location based at least in part on said first parsing.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

revising said estimated geographic location based at least in part on a client profile associated with the client.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

said client contacting the server with the web browser, said browser providing the client profile to the server.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the client profile is based at least in part on a customer database identifying the client.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the client profile is based at least in part on a mass-marketing database identifying the client.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

generating a report comprising geographic locations for clients that have communicated with the web server.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein said determining the geographic location comprises:

matching the result against a template identifying geographically significant portions of network addresses formatted in compliance with the template.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein undesirable network addresses comprise network addresses already having a known geographic location.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, said instructions including further instructions capable of directing the processor to perform:

analyzing domain names associated with a network access provider so as to identify the construction formats for said domain names;

identifying geographically significant components of said construction components; and

storing cross-references between said geographically significant components and geographic locations in a storage.

20. The apparatus of claim 18, said instructions including further instructions capable of directing the processor to perform:

validating said determined geographic location by performing at least one alternate geographic determination for the network address.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, said instructions including further instructions capable of directing the processor to perform:

determining more than one geographic location for the network address; and

ranking said determined geographic locations in accordance with the number of alternate geographic location determinations consistent with said determined geographic locations.

22. The apparatus of claim 18, said instructions including further instructions capable of directing the processor to perform:

providing a regular expression corresponding to the construction format;

matching the regular expression against the domain name; and

identifying a geographically significant portion of the regular expression so as to facilitate said identifying the geographically significant component of the domain name.

23. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein said performing the trace route is performed from the server to the client.

24. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein said performing the trace route is performed from the client to the server.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, said instructions including further instructions capable of directing the processor to perform:

matching the second network host identifier to a second template;

second parsing the second network host identifier according to the second template; and

revising said estimated geographic location based at least in part on said first parsing.

27. The apparatus of claim 25, said instructions including further instructions capable of directing the processor to perform:

revising said estimated geographic location based at least in part on a client profile associated with the client.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, said instructions including further instructions capable of directing the processor to perform:

said client contacting the server with the web browser, said browser providing the client profile to the server.

29. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the client profile is based at least in part on a customer database identifying the client.

30. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the client profile is based at least in part on a mass-marketing database identifying the client.

34. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein undesirable network addresses comprise network addresses already having a known geographic location.

14. A method of determining a geographic location, comprising:

creating a log comprising network addresses of clients that have communicated with a web server;

filtering the log so as to remove undesirable network addresses;

asynchronously performing a trace route between a first one of said filtered network addresses and the server;

analyzing a result of said asynchronous performed trace route; and

determining a geographic location for said first one responsive to said analyzing.

18. An apparatus for geographic location determination based at least in part on inspection of a network address of a client comprising a readable medium having instructions encoded thereon for execution by a processor, said instructions capable of directing the processor to perform:

performing a trace route between a server and the address of the client, the trace route identifying at least one domain name in a route between the server and the client;

identifying a construction format for the domain name;

identifying a geographically significant component of the domain name; and

determining a geographic location for the domain name based at least in part on the geographically significant component.

25. An apparatus for determining a geographic location for a network address comprising a readable medium having instructions encoded thereon for execution by a processor, said instructions capable of directing the processor to perform:

receiving a trace route comprising first and second network host identifiers for hosts disposed between a server and a client on a network;

matching the first network host identifier to a first template;

first parsing the first network host identifier according to the first template; and

identifying an estimated geographic location for the client based at least in part on said first parsing.

31. An apparatus for determining a geographic location comprising a readable medium having instructions encoded thereon for execution by a processor, said instructions capable of directing the processor to perform:

creating a log comprising network addresses of clients that have communicated with a web server;

filtering the log so as to remove undesirable network addresses;

asynchronously performing a trace route between a first one of said filtered network addresses and the server;

analyzing a result of said asynchronous performed trace route; and

determining a geographic location for said first one responsive to said analyzing.

32. The apparatus of claim 31, said instructions including further instructions capable of directing the processor to perform:

generating a report comprising geographic locations for clients that have communicated with the web server.

33. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein said instructions for determining the geographic location comprises instructions for:

matching the result against a template identifying geographically significant portions of network addresses formatted in compliance with the template.

36. The apparatus of claim 35, further comprising:

analyzing means for analyzing domain names associated with a network access provider so as to identify the construction formats for said domain names;

identifying means for identifying geographically significant components of said construction components; and

storing means for storing cross-references between said geographically significant components and geographic locations in a storage.

37. The apparatus of claim 36, further comprising:

validating means for validating said determined geographic location by performing at least one alternate geographic determination for the network address.

39. The apparatus of claim 38, further comprising:

matching means for matching the second network host identifier to a second template;

second parsing means for parsing the second network host identifier according to the second template; and

revising means for revising said estimated geographic location based at least in part on said first parsing.

40. The apparatus of claim 38, further comprising:

revising means for revising said estimated geographic location based at least in part on a client profile associated with the client.

35. An apparatus for geographic location determination based at least in part on inspection of a network address of a client, the apparatus comprising:

performing means for performing a trace route between a server and the address of the client, the trace route identifying at least one domain name in a route between the server and the client;

identifying means for identifying a construction format for the domain name;

identifying means for identifying a geographically significant component of the domain name; and

determining means for determining a geographic location for the domain name based at least in part on the geographically significant component.

38. An apparatus for determining a geographic location for a network address, comprising:

receiving means for receiving a trace route comprising first and second network host identifiers for hosts disposed between a server and a client on a network;

matching means for matching the first network host identifier to a first template;

first parsing means for parsing the first network host identifier according to the first template; and

identifying means for identifying an estimated geographic location for the client based at least in part on said first parsing.

41. An apparatus for determining a geographic location, comprising:

creating means for creating a log comprising network addresses of clients that have communicated with a web server;

filtering means for filtering the log so as to remove undesirable network addresses;

asynchronous tracing means for asynchronously performing a trace route between a first one of said filtered network addresses and the server;

analyzing means for analyzing a result of said asynchronous performed trace route; and

determining means for determining a geographic location for said first one responsive to said analyzing.

42. The apparatus of claim 41, further comprising:

generating means for generating a report comprising geographic locations for clients that have communicated with the web server.

43. The apparatus of claim 41, wherein said determining means for determining the geographic location comprises:

matching means for matching the result against a template identifying geographically significant portions of network addresses formatted in compliance with the template.