Intelligent demand driven recognition of URL objects in connection oriented transactions

In an arrangement comprising a plurality of information servers connected to a communications network, each of the information servers having a common address on the communication network, serving a set of information to clients, and being configured to receive a transaction request associated with an individual transaction and to provide a response to each transaction request, a method for serving transaction requests from clients comprising:

• providing a content director connecting the information servers to the communications network and comprising at least one flow switch selecting an appropriate information server to service each transaction request and thereafter forward at least portions of the transaction request to a selected one of the information servers;
• maintaining a hot locator table in a cache store of the content director, identifying information frequently requested from the information servers, the hot locator table including, for each locator identifying corresponding information, a hit counter indicating a number of direct transaction requests, received by the plurality of information servers over a determined time interval, requesting the corresponding information;
• generating by a digest generator, when the hit counter for a selected locator indicates at least a threshold transaction request receipt frequency but not when the hit counter fails to indicate at least a threshold receipt frequency, a digest value pointing to the location in the hot table where the entry corresponding to the selected locator is stored;
• and
• accessing a digest store comprising the digest values to select an information server to service a transaction request for frequently requested information.

An arrangement for serving information requests, comprising:

• a plurality of information servers connected to a communications network, all of the information servers having a common address on the communications network and serving a set of information to clients, each of the information servers being configured to receive a transaction request associated with an individual transaction and to provide a response to each transaction request;
• and
• content director means for connecting the information servers to the communications network and distributing transaction requests among the information servers comprising:
• first flow switching means for parsing plain text transaction requests to locate selected fields, selecting an appropriate information server to service each transaction request, and thereafter forwarding at least portions of the parsed transaction requests to a selected one of the information servers;
• cache processing means for accessing a plurality of objects in response to communications received from the first flow switching means;
• cache means for storing, in a hot locator table, the plurality of objects including locators identifying information frequently requested from the information servers and including, for each locator identifying corresponding information, a hit counter indicating a number of direct transaction requests, received by the plurality of information servers over a determined time interval, requesting the corresponding information;
• digest generator means for generating, when the hit counter for a locator indicates at least a threshold transaction request receipt frequency but not when the hit counter fails to indicate at least a threshold transaction receipt frequency, a digest value pointing to the location in the hot locator table where the corresponding entry is stored;
• and
• digest store means for storing the digests corresponding to frequently requested content.

In an arrangement comprising a plurality of information servers connected to a communications network, the information servers having a common address on the communication network and serving a set of information to clients, each of the information servers being configured to receive a transaction request associated with an individual transaction and to provide a response to each transaction request, a method for serving transaction requests from clients comprising:

• providing a flow switch in a content director for parsing plain text transaction requests to locate selected fields, select an appropriate information server to service each transaction request, and forward at least portions of the parsed transaction request to a selected one of the information servers:
• maintaining a hot locator table in a cache store at the content director, identifying information frequently requested from the information servers, the hot locator table including, for each locator identifying corresponding information, a hit counter indicating a number of direct transaction requests, received by the plurality of servers over a determined time interval, requesting the corresponding information;
• qenerating, when the hit counter for a selected locator indicates at least a threshold receipt frequency but not when the hit counter fails to indicate at least a threshold receipt frequency, a digest value pointing to a location in the hot locator table where the corresponding entry is stored;
• when the hit counter for a locator indicates at least a threshold transaction request receipt frequency, locating the information associated with the locator at a cache information server and thereafter directing a transaction request for information associated with the locator to a cache information server;
• and
• when the hit counter for a locator falls below a threshold transaction request receipt frequency, directing a transaction request for information associated with the locator to an origin information server.