Global load balancing across mirrored data centers

US7111061B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Akamai Technologies, Inc. · US

Inventors

• F. Thomson Leighton · Newton, US
• Ravi Sundaram · Bethel Park, US
• Rizwan S. Dhanidina · Cambridge, US
• Robert Kleinberg · Somerville, US
• Matthew Levine · Somerville, US
• Adrian Soviani · Cambridge, US
• Bruce Maggs · Pittsburgh, US
• Hariharan Rahul · Cambridge, US
• Srikanth Thirumalai · Needham, US
• Jay Gunvantrai Parikh · Redwood City, US
• Yoav O. Yerushalmi · Village of La Jolla, US
• Daniel M. Lewin · Cambridge, US

Key dates

• Filing date: May 29, 2001
• Grant date: Sep 19, 2006
• Expiry date: Oct 23, 2022

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H04L67/563
• WIPO field: Digital communication
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

The invention is an intelligent traffic redirection system that does global load balancing. It can be used in any situation where an end-user requires access to a replicated resource. The method directs end-users to the appropriate replica so that the route to the replica is good from a network standpoint and the replica is not overloaded. The technique preferably uses a Domain Name Service (DNS) to provide IP addresses for the appropriate replica. The most common use is to direct traffic to a mirrored web site.