Patents Assigned to Level 3 Communication, LLC
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Publication number: 20240056416Abstract: Improved methods for retrieval of content from CDNs is provided that includes a rendezvous controller that receives information of an identification of content being requested and an estimated location of a content requesting device. Based on this information, the rendezvous system identifies a server within a CDN from which the requested content may be retrieved. The selected server may be based on a repeatable hash function such that the likelihood that the content being requested is cached at the selected server. Steering requests to a server of the CDN which may have the content cached may reduce the number of servers within the CDN with the same cached content, particularly for the highest requested content. The rendezvous system may then return a corresponding domain name associated with the selected server and that can be subsequently submitted to a DNS for resolution to the IP address of the identified server.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 26, 2023Publication date: February 15, 2024Applicant: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventor: Kevin C. Johns
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Patent number: 11902241Abstract: Examples of the present disclosure relate to hostname pre-localization. In examples, a service uses a content distribution network (CDN) to provide at least a part of the computing functionality associated with the service. A pre-localized hostname may be used to direct the client computing device to a specific edge server of the CDN that is associated with the computing functionality. In examples, a service receives an initiation request from a client computing device for the computing functionality provided by the CDN. The service generates a pre-localization request comprising pre-localization information and provides the pre-localization request to the CDN. Accordingly, the CDN generates a pre-localized hostname associated with an edge server based on the pre-localization information. The pre-localized hostname is provided to the service, which is then provided to the client computing device, thereby directing the client computing device to the specific edge server of the CDN.Type: GrantFiled: December 23, 2020Date of Patent: February 13, 2024Assignee: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventor: Kevin Johns
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Publication number: 20240048472Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure involve systems for providing multiple egress routes from a telecommunications network for a client of the network. In general, the system provides for a client of the network to receive intended packets of information through multiple connections to the network such that load balancing and failover services for traffic to the customer are provided. The process and system allow for telecommunications network to utilize a common next-hop value of announced border gateway protocol (BGP) routes to advertise multiple routes to reach a destination customer network or address. By utilizing a common next-hop value in the announced BGP information, the devices of the network may load balance communication packets to the destination customer or address among the multiple egress locations from the network, as well as providing fast failover to alternate routes when a failure at the network or customer occurs.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 24, 2023Publication date: February 8, 2024Applicant: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventors: Francis Ferguson, Eric Osborne, Clyde David Cooper, III, Brent W. Smith
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Publication number: 20240048588Abstract: Systems and methods for dynamically mitigating a DDOS attack. In an aspect, the technology relates to a computer-implemented method for dynamically mitigating a distributed-denial-of-service (DDOS) attack. The computer-implemented method may include detecting a DDOS attack directing malicious traffic to a target, identifying one or more source locations of the malicious traffic, and in response to detecting the DDOS attack, activating one or more scrub clusters in the identified one or more source locations of the malicious traffic. The method may further include directing traffic intended for the target to the to the activated one or more scrub clusters, detecting an end of the DDOS attack, and in response to detecting the end of the DDOS attack, deactivating the one or more scrub clusters to release hardware resources.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 20, 2023Publication date: February 8, 2024Applicant: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventor: Michael Feldpusch
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Publication number: 20240046278Abstract: Examples of the present disclosure relate to the optical identification of telecommunications equipment. In examples, a user interacts with an application to capture image data relating to a device according to instructions presented to the user. The application may further generate metadata, such as user responses to one or more questions. The image data and/or metadata are evaluated using a machine learning model to generate an equipment classification for devices pictured therein. The data may also be used to generate an equipment configuration for the device, as well as an operational state (e.g., based on one or more indicators present on the device, log data, etc.). Accordingly, such information may be used to update a pre-existing inventory record for the device, or generate a new inventory record. In other examples, such information is used to generate one or more predicted issues and associated actions to troubleshoot the device.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 20, 2023Publication date: February 8, 2024Applicant: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventors: Jeffrey K. Storey, Clyde David Cooper, Carlos Santiago, Ron Lewis, Steven M. Casey, Stephen Opferman
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Patent number: 11895515Abstract: Implementations described and claimed herein provide systems and methods for identification of connection areas in a telecommunications network. In one implementation, a customer set is obtained for a communications node in the telecommunications network. The customer set includes an existing connection type and a collection of network sites including the connection type is generated from the customer set. An overlay of customer sites without the connection type may be applied to the collection of network sites to generate an intersection of non-connected customer sites within the collection of network sites including the connection type. The intersection provides an indication of underserviced sites connection to the telecommunication network for potential network growth.Type: GrantFiled: September 12, 2022Date of Patent: February 6, 2024Assignee: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventors: William Gray, James Sayre, Stephen Limburg
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Publication number: 20240040287Abstract: Implementations described and claimed herein provide systems and methods for a configurable optical peering fabric to dynamically create a connection between participant sites without any physical site limitations or necessity of specialized client and network provider equipment being located within such a facility. Client sites to a network may connect to a configurable switching element to be interconnected to other client sites in response to a request to connect the first client site with a second site, also connected to network, via the switching element. A request may trigger verification of the requested and, upon validation, transmission of an instruction to the switching element to enable the cross connect within the switching element. The first site and the second site may thus be interconnected via the switching element in response to the request, without the need to co-locate equipment or to manually install a jumper between client equipment.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 12, 2023Publication date: February 1, 2024Applicant: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventors: Laurel Clark, Clyde David Cooper, III, Andrew Dugan
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Publication number: 20240040009Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure involve a CDN utilizing a Direct Server Return (DSR) request command to create a tunnel from one content server to another content server of the CDN. Through the DSR tunnel, a request for content may be served from a content server that is more advantageous for the CDN for any number of reasons, such as from a content server that is logically closer to the content server. In determining when a DSR tunnel is created to provide the content, the CDN may access a database storing various information concerning the CDN, such as the location of egress gateways of the CDN in relation to one or more content servers, connecting network location information, the capabilities of one or more content servers, and/or load information of available content servers.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 29, 2023Publication date: February 1, 2024Applicant: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventors: Joelle T. Maslak, Joseph C. Lawrence
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Publication number: 20240036970Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure involve systems and methods for improving the performance of a telecommunications network by monitoring the performance of one or more storage drives. Operational data is received from a plurality of storage drives of a storage server of a telecommunications network. A plurality of operational coefficients for each of the plurality of storage drives is derived based on the operational data, and a cluster plot is created from the plurality of operational coefficients for each of the plurality of storage drives. A distance is calculated between a subset of operational coefficients of the plurality of operational coefficients of the cluster plot, and a remedial action is initiated on a storage drive of the plurality of storage drives when a calculated distance of an operational coefficient associated with the storage drive exceeds a distance value from a cluster of the cluster plot.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 12, 2023Publication date: February 1, 2024Applicant: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventors: William Hopkins, Lawrence W. Gowin
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Publication number: 20240031331Abstract: Systems and methods for receiving information on network firewall policy configurations are disclosed. Based on the received firewall configuration information, a configuration of a firewall and/or subnet of network devices is automatically provisioned and/or configured to control network traffic to and from the subnet.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 29, 2023Publication date: January 25, 2024Applicant: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventors: Jin-Gen Wang, Travis D. Ewert
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Publication number: 20240031369Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for generating a network ingress filter based on both a customer's route object and recent traffic data for the customer. In examples, even though a customer of a provider network may have many routing prefixes in its route object, the customer may genuinely generate traffic from only a very small percentage of such prefixes. Accordingly, a combination of a system to generate all the prefixes based on a route object, along with the results of collected traffic data, may be used to generate a much smaller ingress filter. In examples, this filter may comprise an intersection of the prefixes generated by the customer's route object and the prefixes that have been actively generating traffic on the inbound interface of the router (or other provider edge system). This results in a smaller ingress filter that can be reliably configured on the provider edge system.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 4, 2023Publication date: January 25, 2024Applicant: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventor: Stewart Bamford
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Publication number: 20240031491Abstract: Novel tools and techniques are provided for implementing application programming interface (“API”)-based concurrent call path (“CCP”) provisioning. In various embodiments, in response to receiving a CCP provisioning request, a computing system may determine whether such a request would affect a set of trunk groups assigned to a customer based at least in part on network utilization data. If not, the computing system may cause the nodes in the network to increase or decrease, in near-real-time, the number of CCPs in at least one trunk group assigned to the customer based on the CCP provisioning request. If so, the computing system may cause the nodes in the network to increase or decrease, in near-real-time, the number of trunk groups assigned to the customer and may cause the nodes in the network to increase or decrease, in near-real-time, the number of CCPs in the updated number of trunk groups.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 29, 2023Publication date: January 25, 2024Applicant: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventors: Bridget McAndrew, Anne Kempen, Sudhir Dadi, Kevin Michelsen, Chris Baker
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Publication number: 20240031453Abstract: Improved methods for retrieval of content from CDNs is provided that includes a rendezvous controller that receives information of an identification of content being requested and an estimated location of a content requesting device. Based on this information, the rendezvous system identifies a server within a CDN from which the requested content may be retrieved. The selected server may be based on a repeatable hash function such that the likelihood that the content being requested is cached at the selected server. Steering requests to a server of the CDN which may have the content cached may reduce the number of servers within the CDN with the same cached content, particularly for the highest requested content. The rendezvous system may then return a corresponding domain name associated with the selected server and that can be subsequently submitted to a DNS for resolution to the IP address of the identified server.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 29, 2023Publication date: January 25, 2024Applicant: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventor: Kevin C. Johns
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Publication number: 20240022639Abstract: Apparatuses and methods are disclosed for managing network connections. A computing device accesses a request to provision a network connection associated with a first device. The request includes a plurality of connection parameters defining desired specifications for a network connection from the first device to a second device. The connection parameters are validated against information from a database and other predetermined rules. A network connection path is generated to connect the first device with the second device. The network connection path is generated by selecting network elements for the network connection that satisfy the connection parameters. Configuration information for the network elements of the network connection path is aggregated for a configuration system. The configuration information is used to provision the network connection.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 16, 2023Publication date: January 18, 2024Applicant: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventors: Jin-Gen Wang, Michael Nyhus, Craig Tystad, James M. Adkins, III
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Patent number: 11876716Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure involve systems, methods, computer program products, and the like, for controlling a congestion window (CWND) value of a communication session of a CDN. In particular, a content server may analyze a request to determine or receive an indication of the type of content being requested. The content server may then set the initial CWND based on the type of content being requested. For example, the content server may set a relatively high CWND value for requested content that is not particularly large, such as image files or text, so that the data of the content is received at the client device quickly. For larger files or files that a have a determined smaller urgency, the initial CWND may be set at a lower value to ensure that providing the data of the content does not congest the link between the devices.Type: GrantFiled: February 24, 2023Date of Patent: January 16, 2024Assignee: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventor: Joelle T. Maslak
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Patent number: 11870652Abstract: Implementations described and claimed herein provide systems and methods for custom-defined network routing. In one implementation, a set of custom defined network flow rules is received at an edge router of a primary network, which is in communication with a customer network. The set of custom defined network flow rules correspond to network traffic associated with the customer network. The set of custom defined network flow rules is stored in a forwarding table on the edge router. A packet of data is received at the edge router. The packet of data is attributed to the customer network. The set of custom defined network flow rules is applied to the pack of data using the forwarding table.Type: GrantFiled: September 23, 2022Date of Patent: January 9, 2024Assignee: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventor: Eric Osborne
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Patent number: 11863332Abstract: Systems, methods, and storage media for detecting a security intrusion of a network device are disclosed. Exemplary implementations may include a method involving, in the network device including a processor, monitor a light signal associated with a security enabled port of the network device; and in response to detecting a change in the light signal, initiate a security alert.Type: GrantFiled: January 20, 2023Date of Patent: January 2, 2024Assignee: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventors: Steven E. Drake, Morgan M. Pofahl
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Patent number: 11863918Abstract: Implementations described and claimed herein provide systems and methods for a configurable optical peering fabric to dynamically create a connection between participant sites without any physical site limitations or necessity of specialized client and network provider equipment being located within such a facility. Client sites to a network may connect to a configurable switching element to be interconnected to other client sites in response to a request to connect the first client site with a second site, also connected to network, via the switching element. A request may trigger verification of the requested and, upon validation, transmission of an instruction to the switching element to enable the cross connect within the switching element. The first site and the second site may thus be interconnected via the switching element in response to the request, without the need to co-locate equipment or to manually install a jumper between client equipment.Type: GrantFiled: July 13, 2021Date of Patent: January 2, 2024Assignee: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventors: Laurel Clark, Clyde David Cooper, III, Andrew Dugan
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Publication number: 20230421703Abstract: Novel tools and techniques are provided for implementing management of routing across multiple voice or data networks with separate routing masters. In various embodiments, in response to receiving a request to establish a call between a calling party in a first network and a called party in a second network, a computing system might receive a first set of network information from a first routing database(s) that is operated by a first service provider and a second set of network information from a second routing database(s) that is operated by a second service provider separate from the first service provider; might analyze the received first and second sets of network information to generate a unified routing model for optimizing routing of the call through the first and second networks; and might establish the call through a selected optimized route based on the generated unified routing model.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 8, 2023Publication date: December 28, 2023Applicant: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventors: Joseph A. Scivicque, Adam Uzelac
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Publication number: 20230421603Abstract: Embodiments provide system and methods for a DDoS service using a mix of mitigation systems (also called scrubbing centers) and non-mitigation systems. The non-mitigation systems are less expensive and thus can be placed at or near a customer's network resource (e.g., a computer, cluster of computers, or entire network). Under normal conditions, traffic for a customer's resource can go through a mitigation system or a non-mitigation system. When an attack is detected, traffic that would have otherwise gone through a non-mitigation system is re-routed to a mitigation system. Thus, the non-mitigation systems can be used to reduce latency and provide more efficient access to the customer's network resource during normal conditions. Since the non-mitigation servers are not equipped to respond to an attack, the non-mitigation systems are not used during an attack, thereby still providing protection to the customer network resource using the mitigation systems.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 6, 2023Publication date: December 28, 2023Applicant: Level 3 Communications, LLCInventors: Robert Smith, Shawn Marck, Christopher Newton