Patent ID: 7436780

Claim:
A method for determining an approximate location of a target node communicatively coupled to a plurality of reference nodes over a computer network configured to support an IP communications protocol, the method comprising: sending packets, formatted to support the IP communications protocol, between the reference nodes to determine reference latencies between each reference node and each of the other plurality of reference nodes, each reference latency including a measurement of communication latency between a specified reference node and another reference node from the plurality of reference nodes and excluding any measurement of communication latency between the target node and any one of the plurality of reference nodes; updating a table of latency information on a periodically scheduled basis to maintain a record including a plurality of entries of the reference latencies between each reference node and each other reference node from the plurality of reference nodes, the entries being collected over a designated period of time; measuring, from packets formatted to support the IP communications protocol and sent between the target node and the reference nodes, target latencies between the target node and a subset of the reference nodes, each target latency including a measurement of communication latency between the target node and a specified reference node; and comparing the target latencies to identify at least three reference nodes having close proximity to the target node; and triangulating reference latencies associated with the at least three reference nodes to approximate a geographic region within which the target node is located.