Systems and methods for utilization of anycast techniques in a DNS architecture

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10979387-B2
Application number	US-201916559045-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 3, 2019
Priority date	Sep 4, 2018
Publication date	Apr 13, 2021
Grant date	Apr 13, 2021

Abstract

Aspects of the present disclosure involve systems, methods, computer program products, and the like, for utilizing multiple anycast addresses within a domain name system (DNS) architecture of a CDN. one or more DNS servers of the architecture may announce a plurality of anycast addresses for receiving DNS requests from requesting devices. The group of addresses may be dispersed (and/or announced by) the DNS servers of the architecture such that each server announces a subset of the available addresses. The number and identity of the subset of available anycast addresses utilized may vary from server to server of the DNS architecture and may be determined based on groups of servers, configurations of metros or gateways of the DNS architecture, or performance metrics of one or more servers.

First claim

I claim:

1. A method for processing domain name system (DNS) requests, the method comprising:
announcing, by a DNS server of a plurality of DNS servers and based on a configuration of the plurality of DNS servers, a subset of a plurality of anycast Internet Protocol (IP) addresses associated with a DNS network, the DNS server configured to receive a DNS request comprising at least one of the subset of the plurality of anycast IP addresses;
receiving, at the DNS server and from a networking device, the DNS request comprising the at least one of the subset of the plurality of anycast IP addresses; and
generating a response to the DNS request.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining a number of the plurality of DNS servers of the DNS network;
executing a hash function to slice the plurality of anycast IP addresses based on the number of the plurality of DNS servers of the DNS network, wherein a result of the hash function identifies the subset of the plurality of anycast IP addresses announced by the DNS server.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
load balancing a plurality of DNS requests to the DNS server based on the subset of the plurality of anycast IP addresses announced by the DNS server.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, from a DNS controller, an identification of the subset of the plurality of anycast IP addresses.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
announcing, by the DNS server to the networking device and in addition to announcing the subset of the plurality of anycast IP addresses, a unique identification address associated with the DNS server.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
monitoring for announcement of a plurality of unique identifications from a subset of the plurality of DNS servers; and
generating an error message in response to receiving less than all of the plurality of unique identifications from a subset of the plurality of DNS servers.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
removing, based on an overload condition at the DNS server, one or more anycast IP addresses from the announced subset of the plurality of anycast IP addresses to redirect additional DNS requests associated with the removed one or more anycast IP addresses to another DNS server of the DNS network.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
receiving a preferred anycast IP address of the plurality of anycast IP addresses, the preferred anycast IP address unique to the networking device in communication with the DNS server; and
announcing the preferred anycast IP address during an overload condition at the DNS server.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the DNS network comprises a first metro network and a second metro network, the method further comprising:
redirecting, based on an overload condition at a first DNS server of the first metro network, a plurality of DNS requests to a second DNS server of the second metro by ceasing announcement of at least one anycast IP address at the first DNS server.

10. A domain name system (DNS) architecture comprising:
a networking device; and
a plurality of DNS servers each in communication with the networking device, at least one of the plurality of DNS servers configured to:
announce, based on a number of the plurality of DNS servers to the networking device, a subset of a plurality of anycast Internet Protocol (IP) addresses associated with the DNS architecture to which one or more DNS requests for the DNS architecture are addressed;
receive, from the networking device and based on at least one of the announced subset of the plurality of anycast IP addresses, a DNS request comprising the at least one of the announced subset of the plurality of anycast IP addresses; and
generate a response to the DNS request.

11. The domain name system of claim 10 , further comprising:
at least one load balancer in communication with the networking device, the at least one load balancer configured to load balance a plurality of DNS requests to the plurality of DNS servers.

12. The domain name system of claim 10 , wherein the at least one of the plurality of DNS servers is further configured to executing a hash function to slice the plurality of anycast IP addresses based on the number of the plurality of DNS servers of the DNS network, wherein a result of the hash function identifies the subset of the plurality of anycast IP addresses announced by the DNS server.

13. The domain name system of claim 10 , further comprising:
a controller configured to transmit an identification of the subset of the plurality of anycast IP addresses to the at least one of the plurality of DNS servers.

14. The domain name system of claim 10 , wherein the at least one of the plurality of DNS servers is further configured to:
receive a unique identification address associated with a second DNS server of the plurality of DNS servers; and
determine, based on the unique identification address associated with the second DNS server, an operating state of the second DNS server.

15. The domain name system of claim 10 , wherein the at least one of the plurality of DNS servers is further configured to:
remove, based on an overload condition at the at least one of the plurality of DNS servers, one or more anycast IP addresses from the announced subset of the plurality of anycast IP addresses to redirect additional DNS requests associated with the removed one or more anycast IP addresses to redirect additional DNS requests associated with the removed one or more anycast IP addresses to another DNS server of the plurality of DNS servers.

16. The domain name system of claim 15 , wherein the networking device is associated with a preferred anycast IP address from the plurality of anycast IP addresses, each of the plurality of DNS servers connected to the networking device announcing the preferred anycast IP address during an overload condition at the DNS server.

17. A communications network comprising:
a first metro network comprising:
a first networking device; and
a first plurality of DNS servers each in communication with the first networking device; and

a second metro network geographically separate from the first metro network and in communication with the first metro network, the second metro network comprising:
a second networking device; and
a second plurality of DNS servers each in communication with the second networking device, wherein at least one of the first plurality of DNS servers and at least one of the second plurality of DNS servers are configured to:
announce a subset of a plurality of anycast Internet Protocol (IP) addresses to which one or more DNS requests are addressed;
receive, from a corresponding networking device and based on at least one of the announced subset of the plurality of anycast IP addresses, a DNS request comprising the at least one of the announced subset of the plurality of anycast IP addresses; and
generate a response to the DNS request.

18. The communications network of claim 17 wherein the at least one of the first plurality of DNS servers is further configured to:
detect an overload condition at the at least one of the first plurality of DNS servers; and
redirect, to the at least one of the second plurality of DNS servers, DNS requests associated with at least one of the announced subset of the plurality of anycast IP addresses.

19. The communications network of claim 18 , wherein detecting the overload condition at the at least one of the first plurality of DNS se

Assignees

• Level 3 Communications Llc

Inventors

• Maslak Joelle T

Classifications

• H04L47/125 Primary

  by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering · CPC title

• H04L2101/69

  using geographic information, e.g. room number · CPC title

• H04L61/5069 Primary

  for group communication, multicast communication or broadcast communication · CPC title

• H04L61/5007

  Internet protocol [IP] addresses · CPC title

• H04L67/568

  Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching · CPC title