Patent ID: 8606847

Claim:
A method comprising: aggregating, with an application-layer traffic optimization (ALTO) server that stores network topology information for a network of one or more endpoints that provides a service, the endpoints into a set of one or more PIDs, wherein each PID represents a subset of the endpoints; storing a first ALTO map for the service, wherein the first ALTO map for the service represents an ALTO topology for the network, wherein the first ALTO map for the service specifies preferences among the one or more PIDs with respect to the service, wherein the first ALTO map for the service comprises either (1) a first ALTO network map that includes one or more PID entries to describe respective PIDs of the one or more PIDs, or (2) a first ALTO cost map that includes one or more cost entries that each specify a different pair of the PIDs and an associated value that represents a cost to traverse a network path between the members of the PID pair; receiving, with the ALTO server, a status update from a first one of the endpoints that comprises information indicating a condition of the first endpoint that affects a performance of the first endpoint with respect to the service; generating a second ALTO map for the service, wherein the second ALTO map accounts for the received information to represent an updated ALTO topology for the network; determining a difference between the first ALTO map for the service and the second ALTO map for the service; generating an incremental update of the first ALTO map for the service based at least on the difference; and outputting an update message from the ALTO server to an ALTO client that comprises the incremental update of the first ALTO map for the service to cause the ALTO client to conform a third ALTO map for the service stored by the ALTO client to the second ALTO map for the service.