Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus for controlling the number of servers in a client/server system

US5974462A · kind A · utility

117Cited by
16References
11Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMar 28, 1997
Grant dateOct 26, 1999
Priority date
Expiry dateMar 28, 2017

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L67/1031
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method and apparatus for controlling the number of servers in an information handling system in which incoming work requests belonging to a first service class are placed in a queue for processing by one or more servers. The system also has units of work assigned to a second service class that acts as a donor of system resources. In accordance with the invention, a performance measure is defined for the first service class as well as for the second service class. Before adding servers to the first service class, there is determined not only the positive effect on the performance measure for the first service class, but also the negative effect on the performance measure for the second service class. Servers are added to the first service class only if the positive effect on the performance measure for the first service class outweighs the negative effect on the performance measure for the second service class.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.