Patent ID: 9344320
Filing Date: 2016-05-17
CPC Classification: H04L

Claim Text:
1. A computer implemented method for identifying network routing information, comprising: receiving a network information request addressed to a predetermined destination; determining that the network information request has an expired time-to-live counter and returning a message indicating that a return path routing procedure has been initiated, wherein said returning the message comprises sending a time-to-live (TTL) exceeded message addressed to a source address of the network information request and with a source address of the TTL exceeded message set to an address that resolves to a predetermined DNS name; for subsequent network information requests, determining that the subsequent network information requests have an unexpired TTL counter; modifying contents of subsequent network information requests that have unexpired TTL counters to enable identification of at least a portion of the return path from the predetermined destination to a source address of the subsequent network information requests by changing source and destination address information in the subsequent network information requests and decrementing a TTL counter of the subsequent network information requests so that the subsequent network information requests will trace return routing information and return the traced return routing information to the source; and forwarding the modified network information requests.