Patents by Inventor Willard Andrew Gray

Willard Andrew Gray has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11973617
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and devices of the various embodiments may enable distributed prefix signing by including a signature in a transitive Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) attribute of a new prefix announcement, and sending the new prefix announcement to peer components. The peer components may query an address and routing parameter area (ARPA) record to obtain nameserver information for an entity associated with the received prefix announcement in response to determining that the received prefix announcement includes a transitive BGP attribute that includes the signature, retrieve a public key from a Domain Name System (DNS) text record, and determine whether the signature included in the transitive BGP attribute of the received prefix announcement is valid based on the public key retrieved from the DNS text record.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2024
    Assignee: Charter Communications Operating, LLC
    Inventors: Jody Lee Beck, Willard Andrew Gray
  • Patent number: 11784911
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus relating to the use of aggregated links, e.g., links in a bundle, are described. A normal link metric and a limited operation mode link metric a determined for a link bundle, the normal link metric having a lower value than the limited operational mode link metric. The status of links in a link bundle are monitored. Based on the number of currently operational links in a link bundle and a switching threshold, a decision is made whether to advertise the normal link metric, advertise the limited operation mode threshold or refrain from advertising any link metric. The use of the limited operation link metric facilitates the use of a partially failed link bundle providing an alternative routing path in the network that would not otherwise be available.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 16, 2022
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2023
    Assignee: Charter Communications Operating, LLC
    Inventor: Willard Andrew Gray
  • Publication number: 20220321452
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus relating to the use of aggregated links, e.g., links in a bundle, are described. A normal link metric and a limited operation mode link metric a determined for a link bundle, the normal link metric having a lower value than the limited operational mode link metric. The status of links in a link bundle are monitored. Based on the number of currently operational links in a link bundle and a switching threshold, a decision is made whether to advertise the normal link metric, advertise the limited operation mode threshold or refrain from advertising any link metric. The use of the limited operation link metric facilitates the use of a partially failed link bundle providing an alternative routing path in the network that would not otherwise be available.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 16, 2022
    Publication date: October 6, 2022
    Inventor: Willard Andrew Gray
  • Patent number: 11374851
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus relating to the use of aggregated links, e.g., links in a bundle, are described. A normal link metric and a limited operation mode link metric a determined for a link bundle, the normal link metric having a lower value than the limited operational mode link metric. The status of links in a link bundle are monitored. Based on the number of currently operational links in a link bundle and a switching threshold, a decision is made whether to advertise the normal link metric, advertise the limited operation mode threshold or refrain from advertising any link metric. The use of the limited operation link metric facilitates the use of a partially failed link bundle providing an alternative routing path in the network that would not otherwise be available.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2022
    Assignee: Charter Communications Operating, LLC
    Inventor: Willard Andrew Gray
  • Publication number: 20220052879
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and devices of the various embodiments may enable distributed prefix signing by including a signature in a transitive Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) attribute of a new prefix announcement, and sending the new prefix announcement to peer components. The peer components may query an address and routing parameter area (ARPA) record to obtain nameserver information for an entity associated with the received prefix announcement in response to determining that the received prefix announcement includes a transitive BGP attribute that includes the signature, retrieve a public key from a Domain Name System (DNS) text record, and determine whether the signature included in the transitive BGP attribute of the received prefix announcement is valid based on the public key retrieved from the DNS text record.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 28, 2021
    Publication date: February 17, 2022
    Inventors: Jody Lee BECK, Willard Andrew GRAY
  • Patent number: 11212139
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and devices of the various embodiments may enable distributed prefix signing by publishing a public key in a Domain Name System (DNS) text record, using a private origination key to generate a signature for a new prefix announcement, including the signature in a transitive Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) attribute of the new prefix announcement, and sending the new prefix announcement to peer components. The peer components may query an address and routing parameter area (ARPA) record to obtain nameserver information for an entity associated with the received prefix announcement in response to determining that the received prefix announcement includes a transitive BGP attribute that includes the signature, retrieve a public key from a Domain Name System (DNS) text record, and determine whether the signature included in the transitive BGP attribute of the received prefix announcement is valid based on the public key retrieved from the DNS text record.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 28, 2021
    Assignee: Charter Communications Operating, LLC
    Inventors: Jody Lee Beck, Willard Andrew Gray
  • Patent number: 11153267
    Abstract: A request is received from customer premises equipment of a customer; the request is responded to with a pointer to a configuration file containing circuit configuration information for the customer. The configuration file is generated. Responsive to the customer premises equipment of the customer following the pointer, the configuration file is served out to the customer premises equipment of the customer. Subsequent internet traffic from the customer is treated in accordance with the configuration file.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 19, 2021
    Assignee: CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS OPERATING, LLC
    Inventor: Willard Andrew Gray
  • Patent number: 11063858
    Abstract: Various embodiments include computing devices and methods for testing a router device. A processor of the computing device may receive one or more Border Monitoring Protocol (BMP) messages collected from a production router. The processor may obtain header information from a header portion of the one or more BMP messages. The processor may modify an origination address in the header information to match an address of a first test network element. The processor may modify a next hop address in the header information to match an address of a second test network element. The processor may convert the one or more BMP messages including the modified header information to one or more Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) messages. The processor may send the one or more BGP messages to a router under test in the test network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 27, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 13, 2021
    Assignee: Charter Communications Operating, LLC
    Inventor: Willard Andrew Gray
  • Publication number: 20210160163
    Abstract: Various embodiments include computing devices and methods for testing a router device. A processor of the computing device may receive one or more Border Monitoring Protocol (BMP) messages collected from a production router. The processor may obtain header information from a header portion of the one or more BMP messages. The processor may modify an origination address in the header information to match an address of a first test network element. The processor may modify a next hop address in the header information to match an address of a second test network element. The processor may convert the one or more BMP messages including the modified header information to one or more Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) messages. The processor may send the one or more BGP messages to a router under test in the test network.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 27, 2019
    Publication date: May 27, 2021
    Inventor: Willard Andrew GRAY
  • Publication number: 20210067377
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and devices of the various embodiments may enable distributed prefix signing by publishing a public key in a Domain Name System (DNS) text record, using a private origination key to generate a signature for a new prefix announcement, including the signature in a transitive Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) attribute of the new prefix announcement, and sending the new prefix announcement to peer components. The peer components may query an address and routing parameter area (ARPA) record to obtain nameserver information for an entity associated with the received prefix announcement in response to determining that the received prefix announcement includes a transitive BGP attribute that includes the signature, retrieve a public key from a Domain Name System (DNS) text record, and determine whether the signature included in the transitive BGP attribute of the received prefix announcement is valid based on the public key retrieved from the DNS text record.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 29, 2019
    Publication date: March 4, 2021
    Inventors: Jody Lee BECK, Willard Andrew Gray
  • Publication number: 20200153727
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus relating to the use of aggregated links, e.g., links in a bundle, are described. A normal link metric and a limited operation mode link metric a determined for a link bundle, the normal link metric having a lower value than the limited operational mode link metric. The status of links in a link bundle are monitored. Based on the number of currently operational links in a link bundle and a switching threshold, a decision is made whether to advertise the normal link metric, advertise the limited operation mode threshold or refrain from advertising any link metric. The use of the limited operation link metric facilitates the use of a partially failed link bundle providing an alternative routing path in the network that would not otherwise be available.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 12, 2020
    Publication date: May 14, 2020
    Inventor: Willard Andrew Gray
  • Publication number: 20200092253
    Abstract: A request is received from customer premises equipment of a customer; the request is responded to with a pointer to a configuration file containing circuit configuration information for the customer. The configuration file is generated. Responsive to the customer premises equipment of the customer following the pointer, the configuration file is served out to the customer premises equipment of the customer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 13, 2018
    Publication date: March 19, 2020
    Inventor: Willard Andrew Gray
  • Patent number: 10536366
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus relating to the use of aggregated links, e.g., links in a bundle, are described. A normal link metric and a limited operation mode link metric a determined for a link bundle, the normal link metric having a lower value than the limited operational mode link metric. The status of links in a link bundle are monitored. Based on the number of currently operational links in a link bundle and a switching threshold, a decision is made whether to advertise the normal link metric, advertise the limited operation mode threshold or refrain from advertising any link metric. The use of the limited operation link metric facilitates the use of a partially failed link bundle providing an alternative routing path in the network that would not otherwise be available.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 14, 2020
    Assignee: Charter Communication Operating, LLC
    Inventor: Willard Andrew Gray