System and method for reduction of mobile network traffic used for domain name system (DNS) queries

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9325662-B2
Application number	US-201213346627-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 9, 2012
Priority date	Jan 7, 2011
Publication date	Apr 26, 2016
Grant date	Apr 26, 2016

Abstract

Systems and methods for reduction of mobile network traffic used for domain name system (DNS) queries are disclosed. In one embodiment, the method, which may be implemented on a system, includes, querying, cached DNS entries in a local cache on a mobile device for a host name associated with an outgoing DNS query from the mobile device or providing a matching cached DNS entry as a response to the outgoing DNS query without accessing the wireless network. The matching cached DNS entry can be invalidated in the local cache when a proxy remote from the mobile device detects a changed DNS response for the outgoing DNS query.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for reducing network traffic used for DNS queries in a wireless network, the method, comprising:
querying cached DNS entries in a local cache on a mobile device for a host name associated with an outgoing DNS query from the mobile device, wherein each cached DNS entry stores an association between a domain name and a network address; and
providing a matching cached DNS entry as a response to the outgoing DNS query without accessing the wireless network;
wherein the matching cached DNS entry is invalidated in the local cache when a proxy remote from the mobile device detects a response for the outgoing DNS query and notifies the mobile device to invalidate the matching locally cached DNS entry; and
wherein the matching cached DNS entry is also invalidated in the local cache when a proxy remote from the mobile device originates a DNS query, detects a changed DNS response to the proxy-originated DNS query, and, in response to detecting the changed DNS response for the proxy-originated DNS query, notifies the mobile device to invalidate the matching locally cached DNS entry,
wherein the proxy-originated DNS query is performed in response to sending, by the mobile device, a polling task to the proxy that instructs the proxy to poll a name server to monitor for changes in responses to the proxy-originated DNS query,
wherein the polling task includes timing data such that the proxy-originated DNS query occurs before the mobile device performs a corresponding query to its local cache,
wherein the timing data is determined based on the freshness of mobile content.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, in the absence of the matching cached DNS entry for the outgoing DNS query, forwarding the outgoing DNS query to a name server for resolution over the wireless network.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising, storing a response provided for the outgoing DNS query by the name server as a cached DNS entry in the local cache for use in locally responding to subsequent DNS queries that are the same as or similar to the outgoing DNS query.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, querying resolved cache entries stored in a resolver cache for a response to the outgoing DNS query prior to querying the local cache.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein, the resolved cache entries have a lifetime determined from domain name records associated with domain names.

6. The method of claim 2 , wherein, lifetime of resolved cache entries stored in the resolver cache is shorter than lifetime of cached DNS entries in the local cache.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein, the proxy is wirelessly coupled to the mobile device.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the timing data is determined such that the response to the proxy-originated query occurs enough before the mobile device performs the corresponding query to its local cache to allow the remote proxy to notify the mobile device to invalidate the matching locally cached DNS entry before the mobile device performs the corresponding query.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, locally storing a matched pair of the outgoing DNS query and the matched DNS entry for locally responding to subsequent queries similar to or same as the outgoing DNS query.

10. The method of claim 2 , wherein, the matched pair is stored for a lifetime.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein, the life time is platform-dependent.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein, the outgoing DNS query is initiated by a mobile application accessed on the mobile device.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, in the absence of a matching cache DNS entry for the DNS query in the local cache, forwarding the DNS query to a host server over the wireless network for resolution.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising, storing a response provided for the outgoing DNS query by the host server as a cached DNS entry in the local cache for use in locally responding to subsequent DNS queries.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the timing data is determined based on an interval with which outgoing DNS queries are observed to be sent from the mobile device.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the freshness of mobile content is calculated based on the current age of the mobile content and a time-to-live (TTL) of the mobile content.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein, a given cache entry in the local resolver cache has a shorter life time than the same given cache entry in the local cache.

18. A system for reducing wireless bandwidth consumption for performing DNS queries in a wireless network, the system, comprising:
a server which is able to communicate with a host able to resolve a DNS query, the DNS query being generated at a mobile device that includes a local cache for caching DNS entries, wherein each cached DNS entry stores an association between a domain name and a network address and wherein the local cache provides a matching cached DNS entry as a response to the DNS query without accessing the wireless network;
wherein, the server is able to identify a change in a response to the DNS query from the host and in response invalidates the matching locally cached DNS entry by providing the change in the response to the mobile device; and
wherein the server also invalidates the matching cached DNS entry in the local cache in response to detecting, by the server, a changed DNS response from the host to a server-originated DNS query originated by the server of the mobile device,
wherein a proxy-originated DNS query is performed in response to sending, by the mobile device, a polling task to the proxy that instructs a proxy to poll a name server to monitor for changes in responses to the proxy-originated DNS query,
wherein the polling task includes timing data such that the proxy-originated DNS query occurs before the mobile device performs a corresponding query to its local cache,
wherein the timing data is determined based on the freshness of mobile content.

19. The system of claim 18 , wherein, the DNS query is generated by a mobile application or mobile client on the mobile device; wherein the host which is able to resolve the DNS query is a remote host server for the mobile application or the mobile client.

20. The system of claim 18 , wherein, mobile device stores a cached entry for a host name associated with the DNS query.

21. The system of claim 19 , wherein, the cached entry stored on the mobile device is used as the host name when a local resolver cache of an operating system of the mobile device does not include a matching response for the DNS query.

22. The system of claim 18 , wherein, in absence of a matching cache entry for the DNS query on the mobile device, the server sends the DNS query over the wireless network to the host for resolution.

23. The system of claim 21 , wherein, the mobile device stores a response provided for the DNS query by the server as an updated cached entry for use in responding to subsequent DNS queries without accessing the wireless network such that wireless bandwidth consumption is reduced.

24. A system for caching responses to DNS queries initiated by a mobile client, the system, comprising:
hardware for querying cached DNS entries stored in a local cache of the mobile client for a host name associated with a DNS query from the mobile client, when a local resolver cache does not contain a matching response for the DNS query, wherein each cached DNS ent

Assignees

• Luna Michael
• Diederich Anton
• Seven Networks Llc

Inventors

• Luna Michael
• Diederich Anton

Classifications

• H04L61/1511 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L61/6009

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L61/58 Primary

  Caching of addresses or names · CPC title

• H04L61/4511 Primary

  using domain name system [DNS] · CPC title

• Y02D30/70

  in wireless communication networks · CPC title