Adaptive node selection

A method for providing adaptive gateway node selection in a general packet radio service (GPRS) network wherein said GRPS network includes a plurality of gateway GPRS support nodes (GGSN) each of said GGSNs associated with a Gn and Gi interfaces, comprising the steps of:

• monitoring a plurality of said Gn and Gi interfaces;
• determining that a particular one of said plurality of Gn or Gi interface is down;
• determining a particular GGSN associated with said downed Gn or Gi interface;
• receiving a domain name request from a serving GPRS support node (SGSN), the domain name request including a domain name;
• ascertaining an association between the domain name and one or more of said plurality of GGSNs;
• and
• formulating a domain name response based, at least partly, on said steps of ascertaining, wherein said determined GGSN with the downed interface is removed from said response in the event said determined GGSN is ascertained as being associated with said domain name.

A system for implementing an active mobile domain name server (DNS) within a general packet radio service (GPRS) network, comprising:

• means for monitoring a plurality of gateway GPRS support nodes (GGSN), each identifiable by a key Internet protocol (IP) address and further associated with a Gn interface and Gi interface;
• means for maintaining a database, the database having a plurality of entries, each entry including a particular domain name and one or more network addresses associated with one or more GGSNs, said means for maintaining a database further marking a particular entry as being unavailable if said means for monitoring determines that the at least one of said Gn interface or Gi interface associated with a particular GGSN associated with said particular entry as being downed;
• means for receiving a domain name request having a domain name from another network node within said GPRS network;
• and
• means for responding to the domain name request with a domain name response, the domain name response including network address associated with one or more GGSNs that are associated with the domain name in the database and whose corresponding entry is not marked as unavailable.

A method for adaptively routing communications in a general packet radio service (GPRS) network, comprising the steps of:

• monitoring at least one of Gn and Gi interfaces/links to detect an interface/link failure, each of the at least one of Gn and Gi interfaces/links coupled to at least one gateway GPRS support node (GGSN) of a plurality of GGSNs;
• maintaining a database that includes a plurality of entries, each entry of the plurality of entries associating a domain name of a plurality of domain names with at least one GGSN, and its respective Internet protocol (IP) address, of the plurality of GGSNs;
• filtering out IP addresses of GGSNs in relation to the at least one of Gn and Gi interfaces/links that have been detected as in failure;
• receiving a request from a serving GPRS support node (SGSN) that includes a domain name;
• mapping the domain name to at least one entry and its respective IP address using at least one entry of the database;
• formulating a response, the response listing at least one GGSN to be sent to the SGSN, using the at least one entry from said step of mapping but omitting any IP address or addresses of GGSNs that are filtered out by said step of filtering.