Patent ID: 8645517

Claim:
A method, operable in a framework in which an adaptive traffic control name server network implements policy-based traffic direction, the name server network comprising at least one domain name server comprising hardware in combination with software and constructed and adapted to provide adaptive policy-based domain name service, the method comprising: (A) providing a graphical user interface (GUI); (B) using said GUI to obtain at least one policy for direction of network traffic, wherein the GUI supports the setting of said at least one policy using a decision tree representing rules; and (C) providing said at least one policy to the name server network, wherein the decision tree comprises one or more resource nodes, and one or more branch nodes, wherein the one or more resource nodes specify one or more answers to be provided in response to a Domain Name Service (DNS) request, and wherein the one or more branch nodes specify one or more decision criteria to be applied, and wherein the GUI supports the specification of: (i) one or more answers for the one or more resource nodes, and (ii) one or more decision criteria for the one or more branch nodes, wherein the one or more criteria are selected from criteria related to: world zones, countries, states, time zones, and blocks of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, and wherein the one or more resource nodes are selected from: IP addresses, canonical name (CNAME) records, mail exchange (MX) records, name server (NS) records, and load sharing server sets; and wherein the answers are selected from: IP addresses and CNAMEs.