Patent · US Expired

Phased learning approach to determining closest content serving sites

US6920498B1 · kind B1 · utility

94Cited by
21References
33Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateAug 31, 2000
Grant dateJul 19, 2005
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 28, 2022

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L67/14
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

In order to direct content requests to an appropriate content serving site in a computer network, a phased learning approach is utilized to ensure that, as best as possible, the request is made to content serving site with the shortest delay. In a setup phase, an indirect path return geographic sever load balancer times sends transit time requests to all of the individual content serving sites so that the transit requests all arrive at the content serving sites at the same time. Therefore, when the requesting fixed location receives communications from the content serving sites, it can easily tell which content serving site has the least delay by an established race condition. The winner of the race may then be relayed to the indirect path return geographic server load balancer for later usage. In an execution mode, only the m fastest content serving sites and n other sites (used to test random and new sites) are sent a transit time request when a DNS request arrives from the requesting fixed location. The particular m fastest content serving sites and n other sites may be dynamically updated so as to ensure the most reliable directing of requests. This solution provides a very eff…

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