Patent · US Expired

Wide area load balancing of web traffic

US6981056B1 · kind B1 · utility

14Cited by
32References
32Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJun 28, 2000
Grant dateDec 27, 2005
Priority date
Expiry dateJun 15, 2022

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L67/60
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Methods and apparatus are described for intelligently for intelligently routing a request to a device (e.g., replica or server). A packet is received (e.g., by the client's gateway router) from a client, and the packet has a destination identifier associated with a server. When the packet is a start packet, a tag is added to the start packet to indicate that the start packet should be forwarded to any replica that duplicates the data content of the server. The destination identifier of the start packet is stored for later use. After storing the destination identifier of the start packet and tagging the start packet, the start packet is sent to the server. When the start packet has a tag indicating that the start packet should be forwarded to any replica that duplicates the data content of the server, the start packet is encapsulated and sent to each replica associated with the server. A replica device then receives a start packet sent from the client to the server. The start packet is encapsulated. The encapsulated start packet is cracked to determine the client's address. When the replica device is active and not busy, an immediate acknowledgement packet is sent to the client in r…

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