Geo-intelligent traffic manager

• US 7,844,729 B1
• Filed: 10/30/2000
• Issued: 11/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/03/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Digital Envoy, Inc. (Landmark Media Enterprises LLC)
• Original Assignee: Digital Envoy, Inc. (Landmark Media Enterprises LLC)
• Inventors: Lutch, Benjamin, Parekh, Sanjay M., Friedman, Robert B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bates; Kevin
• Assistant Examiner(s): GOLD, AVI M
• Application Number:
  US09/702,094
• Time in Patent Office: 3,683 Days
• Field of Search: 709217-219, 709223-226, 709232-233, 709/235, 709/238, 709/239, 709/299, 709/245, 709/249, 709/250
• US Class Current: 709/238
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/147 for predicting network behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/02 Topology update or discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/125 based on throughput or bandwidth
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/126 minimising geographical or physical path length
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/42 Centralised routing

Abstract

A traffic manager determines the geographic locations of end points on Internet traffic and routes the traffic in the most efficient manner. A set of analyzers may be disposed to analyze the network, such as the geographic locations of nodes in the network, latency times and speed between nodes, available bandwidth, etc. The traffic manager obtains this intelligence on the network from the analyzers and routes traffic accordingly. The traffic manager considers not only the most direct route but also considers the speed, available bandwidth, and reliability of the routing. The traffic manager can be disposed any within the network, such as part of DNS service or as an HTTP redirect. Thus, the traffic manager can be implemented in routers, switches, sprinklers, load balancers, DNS server, or other servers. In modeling the network traffic and behavior, the traffic manager may simply portions of the network and employ probability and statistics in approximating the network behavior.

Claims

1. A method for routing network traffic, comprising:

a. receiving the network traffic at a router;

b. determining a geographic location of the router using an IP address of the router;

c. determining a destination for the network traffic received at the router;

d. determining a geographic location of the destination using an IP address of the destination;

e. determining a first route to the destination, the first route comprising at least a first intermediate routing device;

f. deriving a geographic location of the first intermediate routing device using an IP address of the first intermediate routing device, by performing the steps of;

extracting geographic naming information for the first intermediate routing device, from a first part of a host name associated with the first intermediate routing device;

comparing at least a part of the extracted geographic naming information for the first intermediate routing device to one or more of the plurality of variations of each of a plurality of geographic names stored in a database containing geographic naming information; and

determining a geographic location of the first intermediate routing device based at least in part on the comparison;

g. analyzing a first interconnection between one or more routing devices in the first route by approximating the behavior at the one or more routing devices in the first route;

h. determining a second route to the destination, the second route comprising at least a second intermediate routing device;

i. deriving a geographic location of the second intermediate routing device using an IP address of the second intermediate routing device;

j. analyzing a second interconnection between one or more routing devices in the second route by approximating the behavior at the one or more routing devices in the second route;

k. selecting a route from one of the first route or the second route using the geographic location of the destination, the geographic location of the router, the geographic location of the first intermediate routing device, the geographic location of the second intermediate routing device, the approximated behavior at the one or more routing devices in the first route, and the approximated behavior at the one or more routing devices in the second route; and

l. directing the network traffic along the selected route to the destination.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the network traffic comprises a request and the destination comprises a server.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting step further comprises selecting a route with a shortest distance to the destination.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting step further comprises selecting a route having the shortest latency time.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting step further comprises selecting a route having the most available bandwidth.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a destination comprises selecting a destination based on its load.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a destination comprises selecting a destination based on a connection speed associated with a source of the network traffic.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a destination comprises selecting a destination based on bandwidth available at the destination.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a destination comprises selecting a destination based on a connection speed associated with a source of the network traffic and the bandwidth available at the destination.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the network comprises the Internet and the network traffic comprises packets.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising assigning a first confidence level to the determined geographic location of first intermediate routing device and assigning a second confidence level to the determined geographic location of the second intermediate routing device, and wherein selecting a route comprises selecting a route from one of the first route or the second route using the geographic location of the destination, the geographic location of the router, the geographic location of the first intermediate routing device, the geographic location of the second intermediate routing device, the approximated behavior at the one or more routing devices in the first route, the first confidence level assigned to the determined geographic location of the first intermediate routing device, the approximated behavior at the one or more routing devices in the second route, and the second confidence level assigned to the determined geographic location of the second intermediate routing device.