Method and apparatus for effective traffic localization through domain name system

摘要

The present invention uses a client-side computation to efficiently provide translation of a domain name to the address of a "good" (i.e. close, available, nearby) server of a distributed server system. The invention uses an application client's resolver to perform some computation to determine the IP address of a preferred server for that client. When the client provides the web server name (say www.sun.com) to the DNS resolver, the DNS service returs data, or a small applet that runs at the browser's local resolver to generate the desired IP address. The present invention is processed by the DNS server (in the resolver portion) and at the client. The web server does not need to participate. The invention does no require any changes to the current DNS infrastructure. The invention also can direct clients to more local servers and avoid expensive "long-haul" links. The invention also preserves the critical caching property of the current DNS system, has reduced latency than other schemes, less traffic for the network and DNS servers, and supports the use of secondary DNS servers.