Dynamic network tunnel endpoint selection

US7992201B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• International Business Machines Corporation · US

Inventors

• M. Lynn Aldridge · Bonners Ferry, US
• Peter Dill · Ingolstadt, DE
• Ivan M. Heninger · Smithfield, US
• John D. Kari · Coeur d'Alene, US
• Clifford D. Marano · Middlebury, US
• David M. Urgo · Cary, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Jul 26, 2007
• Grant date: Aug 2, 2011
• Expiry date: Apr 22, 2030

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H04L63/0272
• WIPO field: Digital communication
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

Dynamically selecting an endpoint for a tunnel into an enterprise computing infrastructure. A client dynamically selects a gateway (which may alternatively be referred to as a boundary device or server) as a tunnel endpoint for connecting over a public network (or, more generally, an untrusted network) into an enterprise computing infrastructure. The selection is made, in preferred embodiments, according to least-cost routing metrics pertaining to paths through the enterprise network from the selected gateway to a destination host. The least-cost routing metrics may be computed using factors such as the proximity of selectable tunnel endpoints to the destination host; stability or redundancy of network resources for this gateway; monetary costs of transmitting data over a path between the selectable tunnel endpoints and destination host; congestion on that path; hop count for that path; and/or latency or transmit time for data on that path.