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AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorsVishwajith Kumbalimutt, David J. Simons, Robert I. Brown, Elena Apreutesei
Estimating the term…
Disclosed is a system for servers to redirect client requests to other servers in order to distribute client traffic among the servers. A client is assigned to a server although the client may be unaware of that assignment. When the client accesses a server, a server possibly identified to the client by a name service, the server checks the client's assignment. If the client is not assigned to this server, then in some scenarios this server redirects the client to its assigned server. The client responds by sending its request to the assigned server. In other scenarios, the first server accessed by the client proxies the client's traffic to the assigned server. A database is kept of client-to-server assignments. If the present load distribution is less than ideal (e.g., clients are assigned to an unavailable server), then the assignment database is updated to reflect how the load should be distributed.
A method performed by servers that each provide a service for clients, the method for distributing a request for service received from a client to a server for servicing the request, the servers being in a network, some of the clients being internal to the network and some of the clients being external to the network, the method comprising:
A computer-readable storage medium that is not a signal containing instructions for controlling a server that provides a service for clients to perform a method to distribute a request for service received from a client to another server that also provides the service for clients, the servers being in a network, some of the clients being internal to the network and some of the clients being external to the network, the method comprising:
A server that receives from a requesting client a request to provide a service and the receiving server either provides the service to the client or distributes the received request to another server that also provides the service for clients, the servers being in a network, some of the clients being internal to the network and some of the clients being external to the network, comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.