METHODS AND APPARATUS TO PROVISION NETWORK RESOURCE RECORDS

• US 20090106291A1
• Filed: 10/18/2007
• Published: 04/23/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/18/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SBC Knowledge Ventures LP
• Original Assignee: SBC Knowledge Ventures LP
• Inventors: Ku, Bernard, Tomalenas, Paul A., Forsyth, James
• Granted Patent: US 8,239,422 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4557 Directories for hybrid networks, e.g. including telephone numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42119 where the identifier is a Uniform Resource Locator
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0075 Details of addressing, directories or routing tables

Abstract

Methods and apparatus to provision network resource records are described. An example method of provisioning a plurality of resource records in a telephone number mapping system includes receiving first and second inputs to define a range of numbers corresponding to a plurality of resource records; creating an object in a first server, the object having one or more attributes to represent the plurality of resource records; and automatically provisioning the plurality of resource records in a second server based on the one or more attributes of the object.

Claims

1. A method of provisioning a plurality of resource records in a telephone number mapping system comprising:

receiving first and second inputs to define a range of numbers corresponding to a plurality of resource records;

creating an object in a first server, the object having one or more attributes to represent the plurality of resource records; and

automatically provisioning the plurality of resource records in a second server based on the one or more attributes of the object.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising defining one or more zones in which the resource records are to be provisioned.

3. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein the zones are defined based on a portion of the first input.

4. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising generating a signal to inform the second server that the object has been created.

5. A method as defined in claim 4, wherein the signal causes the second server to compare its contents with the contents of the first server to determine whether an update is needed.

6. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising conveying the object from the first server to an update queue.

7. A method as defined in claim 6, further comprising polling the update queue to detect newly created objects.

8. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein provisioning the plurality of resource records comprises iterating through the range of numbers and creating a resource record for each iteration.

9. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising receiving a third input to define a portion of a uniform resource identifier.

10. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the first server and the second server are the same server.

11. An apparatus for use in a telephone number mapping system comprising:

an interface to receive first and second inputs to define a range of numbers corresponding to a plurality of resource records;

a lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) object creator to create an object having one or more attributes to represent the plurality of resource records; and

a provisioner to provision the plurality of resource records based on the attributes of the object.

12. An apparatus as defined in claim 11, wherein the LDAP object creator comprises a LDAP server and the provisioner comprises a domain name server.

13. An apparatus as defined in claim 11, wherein the object comprises a lightweight directory access protocol object.

14. An apparatus as defined in claim 11, wherein the resource records comprise naming authority pointers.

15. An apparatus as defined in claim 11, wherein the first input comprises a base telephone number and the second input comprises a quantity of numbers to be provisioned.

16. An apparatus as defined in claim 11, further comprising a third input to define a portion of a uniform resource identifier.

17. An apparatus as defined in claim 11, wherein the LDAP object creator further comprises:

a range calculator to determine a range of resource records to be provisioned;

a zone calculator to define one or more zones based on the base telephone number and the quantity of desired available telephone numbers; and

an object builder to build the object based on the range of resource records to be provisioned and the one or more zones.

18. An apparatus as defined in claim 11, wherein the provisioner further comprises:

a scheduler to manage a polling to detect the object; and

a record generator to create the resource records represented by the object and the attributes of the object.

19. A telephone number mapping system comprising:

an interface to receive first and second inputs, to define a range of numbers to be provisioned;

a lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) server to communicate with a domain name server of a domain name system, the LDAP server to create an LDAP object representative of a plurality of resource records to be provisioned; and

a provisioner to use the LDAP object to provision the plurality of resource records.

20. A telephone number mapping system as defined in claim 20, wherein the resource records are provisioned in the one or more domain name servers.

21. A telephone number mapping system as defined in claim 20, wherein the resource records comprise naming authority pointers.

22. A lightweight directory access protocol object creator comprising:

a range calculator to determine a range of resource records to be provisioned in a telephone number mapping system;

a zone calculator to define one or more zones based on a base telephone number and a quantity of desired available telephone numbers; and

an object builder to build an object based on the range of resource records to be provisioned and on the one or more zones.

23. A provisioner for use in a telephone number mapping system comprising:

a scheduler to manage a polling to detect an object, the object having one or more attributes to represent a plurality of resource records to be provisioned; and

a record generator to create resource records represented by the object and the attributes of the object.