Enhancing dns availability

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016269356-A1
Application number	US-201514656060-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 12, 2015
Priority date	Mar 12, 2015
Publication date	Sep 15, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A system and method for providing an address for a Domain Name System (DNS) server to a consumer device, wherein the consumer device connects to the Internet through a vehicle, includes providing an address for a default DNS server to the consumer device; receiving a request from the consumer device to convert a domain name to an Internet Protocol (IP) address using the default DNS server; forwarding the request to the default DNS server; determining if the request has been resolved by the default DNS server within a time-to-respond limit; and updating the consumer device with a different address for a DNS server retrieved from a list stored in vehicle hardware if the request has not been resolved within the time-to-respond limit.

First claim

1 . A method for providing an address for a Domain Name System (DNS) server to a consumer device, wherein the consumer device connects to the Internet through a vehicle, the method comprising the steps of:
providing an address for a default DNS server to the consumer device; receiving a request from the consumer device to convert a domain name to an Internet Protocol (IP) address using the default DNS server; forwarding the request to the default DNS server; determining if the request has been resolved by the default DNS server within a time-to-respond limit; and updating the consumer device with a different address for a DNS server retrieved from a list stored in vehicle hardware if the request has not been resolved within the time-to-respond limit.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further including ranking entries in the list based on performance characteristics associated with each DNS server in the list.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein updating the consumer device with the DNS server address includes retrieving from the list the highest ranking DNS server entry in the list.

4 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the performance characteristics for each DNS server in the list include domain name resolution time.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further including adding to the list one or more DNS servers received from a wireless carrier system.

6 . The method of claim 1 , further including updating the DNS server entries in the list when a new DNS server is received and when new performance information is available.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein updating the consumer device with the DNS server from the list is achieved via dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP).

8 . The method of claim 6 , further including providing to the consumer device a lease time associated with the default DNS server via DHCP.

9 . The method of claim 7 , further including receiving a request to update the consumer device via DHCP when half of the lease time has elapsed.

10 . A method for providing an address for a Domain Name System (DNS) server to a consumer device, wherein the consumer device connects to the Internet through a vehicle, the method comprising the steps of:
providing an address for a default DNS server and a lease time to the consumer device via dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP); receiving a request from the consumer device to convert a domain name to an Internet Protocol (IP) address using the default DNS server; maintaining a list of DNS servers in the vehicle hardware, wherein the DNS servers are ranked according to performance characteristics; and updating the consumer device via DHCP with a different address for a DNS server retrieved from the list.

11 . The method of claim 10 , further including adding to the list one or more DNS servers received from a wireless carrier system.

12 . The method of claim 10 , wherein updating the consumer device with the DNS server address includes retrieving from the list the highest ranking DNS server entry in the list.

13 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the performance characteristics for each DNS server in the list include domain name resolution time.

14 . The method of claim 10 , further including updating the DNS server entries in the list when a new entry is received and when new performance information is available.

15 . The method of claim 10 , further including receiving a request to update the consumer device via DHCP when half of the lease time has elapsed.

16 . A system for connecting a consumer device to the Internet and for providing an address for a Domain Name System (DNS) server to the consumer device, the system comprising:
vehicle hardware and/or a vehicle telematics unit individually or in combination configured to:
provide an address for a default DNS server and a lease time to the consumer device via dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP);
receive a request from the consumer device to convert a domain name to an Internet Protocol (IP) address using the default DNS server;
maintain a list of DNS servers in the vehicle hardware, wherein the DNS servers are ranked according to performance characteristics; and
update the consumer device via DHCP with a DNS server retrieved from the list.

17 . The system of claim 16 , wherein updating the consumer device with the DNS server address includes retrieving from the list the highest ranking DNS server entry in the list.

18 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the performance characteristics for each DNS server in the list include domain name resolution time.

19 . The method of claim 16 , further including updating the DNS server entries in the list when a new entry is received and when new performance information is available.

20 . The method of claim 16 , further including receiving a request to update the consumer device via DHCP when half of the lease time has elapsed.

Assignees

• Gen Motors Llc

Inventors

• Basnayake Chaminda
• Droste Scott T
• George David

Classifications

• H04W4/44

  for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H] · CPC title

• H04W84/005

  Moving wireless networks · CPC title

• H04L67/12

  specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks · CPC title

• H04L61/301

  Name conversion · CPC title

• H04L61/2015 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic