SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DISTANCE AND PERFORMANCE BASED LOAD BALANCING

• US 20130297596A1
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Published: 11/07/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/01/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cloudfloordns LLC
• Original Assignee: Everbridge Incorporated
• Inventors: Mouline, Imad, Breen, William Ryan, Wills, Timothy Frans, Smith, Paul
• Granted Patent: US 9,740,708 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/724
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/69 using geographic information, e.g. room number
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1021 based on client or server locations

Abstract

Systems and methods for a DNS management system utilize a distance-based and/or a performance-based A record. A DNS management system of embodiments receives a request from a client for an IP address associated with a domain name. A database of IP address location records is queried to determine a geographic location of the client in operation according to embodiments. An A record corresponding to the geographically closest available server node may thereafter be delivered to the client. A system operable according to embodiments may additionally or alternatively monitor the performance of available servers and deliver an A record corresponding to the best performing local server.

Claims

1. A distance-based routing method of translating queries for domain names into IP addresses, comprising:

receiving a request from a client for an IP address associated with a domain name, the client having a client IP address;

querying a database of IP address location records to determine a geographic location of the client;

determining geographic distance to available server nodes based on the geographic location of the client; and

delivering an list of DNS records ordered according to geographic proximity to the available server nodes to the client.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a geographic location of a server node based on its associated IP address.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising calculating an approximate distance between the client and server based on latitude and longitude coordinates.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising delivering DNS records corresponding to equidistant or near equidistant server nodes in a round-robin fashion.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising

monitoring the performance of available servers to determine the performance of available servers, and

selecting an order of DNS records to deliver based on geographic location and performance data.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the performance of available servers is monitored using a network monitoring server which periodically probes the available servers.

7. A performance-based method of translating queries for domain names into IP addresses, comprising:

monitoring the performance of available servers to determine the performance of available servers;

receiving a request from a client for an IP address associated with a domain name, the client having a client IP address;

determining an order of DNS records to serve based on the performance of available servers; and

delivering the ordered list of DNS records to the requesting client.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the performance of locally available servers is monitored using a network monitoring server which periodically probes the locally available servers.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising delivering DNS records corresponding to equidistant or near equidistant server nodes in a round-robin fashion.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising determining a geographically closest server based on the client IP address;

and

delivering a list of DNS records ordered according to geographic proximity to the requesting client when performance information is unavailable.

11. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a program causing a computer to execute a process for translating queries for domain names into IP addresses, the process comprising:

receiving a request from a client for an IP address associated with a domain name, the client having a client IP address;

querying a database of IP address location records to determine a geographic location of the client;

determining geographic distance to available server nodes based on the geographic location of the client; and

delivering an list of DNS records ordered according to geographic proximity to the available server nodes to the client.

12. The non-transitory computer readable method of claim 11, wherein the process further comprises determining a geographic location of a server node based on its associated IP address.

13. The non-transitory computer readable method of claim 11, wherein the process further comprises calculating an approximate distance between the client and server based on latitude and longitude coordinates.

14. The non-transitory computer readable method of claim 11, wherein the process further comprises delivering DNS records corresponding to equidistant or near-distant server nodes in a round-robin fashion.

15. The non-transitory computer readable method of claim 11, wherein the process further comprises monitoring the performance of locally available servers to determine the best performing locally available server.

16. The non-transitory computer readable method of claim 15, wherein the process further comprises selecting an order of DNS records to deliver based on geographic location and performance data.

17. The non-transitory computer readable method of claim 15, wherein the performance of potential local servers is monitored using a network monitoring server which periodically probes the locally available servers.

18. A method of translating queries for domain names into IP addresses, comprising:

monitoring the performance of available servers to determine the performance of available servers;

receiving a request from a client for an IP address associated with a domain name, the client having a client IP address;

querying a database of IP address location records to determine a geographic location of the client;

determining distance-based DNS records according to geographically proximity to the client;

determining performance-based DNS records based on the performance of available servers;

selecting DNS records to be delivered from the group consisting of the distance-based DNS records and the performance-based DNS records; and

delivering the selected DNS records to the client.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the step of selecting comprises

selecting the distance-based DNS records as a default;

and

selecting the performance-based DNS records if certain criteria are met.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein said criteria include performance, cost, and availability.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the step of selecting comprises comparing the performance of the servers corresponding to the routing distance-based DNS records and performance-based DNS records.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the performance-based DNS records are selected when they improve performance over a selected threshold.