Broker for computer network server selection

A computer implemented method for allocating a plurality of servers, each server having an available resource capacity, to a plurality of clients in a network for delivering a plurality of services to said clients, and for reducing the communication overhead on the network, the method comprising the steps of:

• a) receiving a client request from one of the plurality of clients for one of said services in at least one broker;
• b) selecting a subset of servers from the plurality of servers based on the available resource capacity of each of the plurality of servers;
• and
• c) making a server suggestion, from the at least one broker, to one of the plurality of clients, the server suggestion identifying said subset of members to said one of the plurality of clients in response to said client request;
• d) making a request for said one of said services from sad one of said clients to said suggested one of said servers in response to said one of said clients receiving the server suggestion of step c) from the at least one broker,;
• e) operating the suggested one of said servers in accordance with its respective local policy to reject the request for said one of said services of step d) when the request exceeds the available resource capacity of the suggested one of said servers;
• and
• f) operating the suggested one of said servers to accept the request for said one of said services of step d) when the request does not exceed the available resource capacity of the suggested one of said servers.

A device for allocating a plurality of servers, each having an available resource capacity, to a plurality of clients for delivering one of a plurality of services to said clients, said servers and said clients being arranged in a computer network, the device suggesting a suggested one of the plurality of servers to a requesting one of the plurality of clients requesting a one of the plurality of services, the requesting one of the plurality of the clients making a request for one of the plurality of services to the suggested on of the plurality of servers, the suggested one of the plurality of servers operating to reject the request for the one of the plurality of services when the request exceeds a local policy limit for a respective local policy of the suggested one of the plurality of servers, the suggested on of the plurality of servers operating to accept the request for said one of the plurality of services when the request does not exceed the local policy limit for the respective local policy of the suggested one of the plurality of servers, the device comprising:

• a) a broker including:
• (i) means for receiving client request for said service;
• and
• (ii) means for suggesting by the broker one of said servers to one of said clients making a request based on an available resource capacity, said one server being suggested having the available resource capacity to deliver said service;
• said means for suggesting further comprising:
• 1) means for creating a service list, within said broker, of available services;
• 2) means for creating a server list, containing server entries of available servers for supporting each of said services in said server list;
• and
• 3) means for monitoring a subset of said server entries in said server list for suggesting said servers represented in said server list to said clients.

A computer network comprising:

• a) at least two brokers for allocating a plurality of servers having an available resource capacity to a plurality of clients for delivering one of a plurality of services to said clients;
• b) such broker further including,
• i) means for developing a network policy for said plurality of servers by collecting a respective local policy for each of said servers, wherein the respective local policy for each server is based on an overall capacity of each server to deliver each of the plurality of services to said clients;
• ii) means for receiving client requests for said services in said broker;
• iii) the broker making a server suggestion to one of said clients making a request for one of said service, the server suggestion identifying a suggested available resource capacities of said servers, said suggested on of said servers having the available resource capacity to deliver said one of said services;
• and
• c) said one of said clients making a request for said one of said services to said suggested one of said servers in response to said one of said clients receiving the server suggestion from the broker;
• d) the suggested one of said server rejecting the request for said one of said services when the request exceeds a local policy limit for the respective local policy of the suggested one of said servers;
• and
• e) the suggested one of said servers accepting the request for said one of said services when the request does not exceed the local policy limit for the respective local policy of the suggested one of said servers.