Method and apparatus for making a cluster of computers appear as a single host on a network
US5371852A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Oct 14, 1992 |
| Grant date | Dec 6, 1994 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Oct 14, 2012 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L67/563
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for enabling a cluster of computers to appear as a single computer to host computers outside the cluster. A host computer communicates only with a gateway to access destination nodes and processes within the cluster. The gateway has at least one message switch which processes incoming and outgoing port type messages crossing the cluster boundary. This processing comprises examining certain information on the message headers and then changing some of this header information either to route an incoming message to the proper computer node, port and process or to make an outgoing message appear as if originated at the gateway node. The message switch uses a table to match incoming messages to a particular routing function which can be run to perform the changes necessary to correctly route different kinds of messages.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.