System and method for regulating incoming traffic to a server farm
First Claim
1. A method of regulating admittance of a number of TCP connection requests to a plurality of servers that support to a plurality of applications and a plurality of customers, each of the customers having electronic business activity hosted by the plurality of servers on the basis of a service level agreement that specifies a minimum TCP connection rate that the customer is guaranteed, the method comprising the steps of:
- receiving incoming workload for the plurality of customers for the plurality of applications into a common buffer, the incoming workload comprising IP packets associated with existing TCP connections and TCP connection requests;
taking an IP packet from the common buffer;
detecting whether the IP packet taken from the common buffer is a TCP connection request packet or is associated with an existing TCP connection;
immediately sending the IP packet to the servers if the IP packet is associated with an existing TCP connection;
rejecting the IP packet if associated with a TCP connection request unless the IP packet is necessary to meet the minimum TCP connection rate for the customer associated with the TCP connection request or if sending the IP packet to the servers does not prevent meeting the minimum TCP connection rate for another of the customers.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for controlling the rates at which application workload, e.g., TCP connection requests, is admitted to a collection of servers, such as a server farm of an application service provider (ASP) that hosts Internet World Wide Web (WWW) sites of various owners. The system and method are intended to operate in an environment in which each customer has a workload-based SLA for each type of application hosted by the provider and used by the customer. The system and method achieve support (minimum, maximum) TCP connection requests for multiple customers and applications. According to one aspect, the system and method guarantee, control and deliver TCP connection-based workload SLA'"'"'s to customers whose applications are hosted by the server farm with the use of a workload regulator that operates by regulating only new TCP connection request packets while transparently passing existing TCP connection packets and other request packets received for customers. The regulator further operates by regulating the flow of incoming TCP connection requests to each customer business activity application so as to guarantee a level of service previously agreed to each customer (per their respective SLA'"'"'s) by applying rate admittance to requests and by dropping (or rejecting) requests to guarantee the agreed service levels to the customer'"'"'s application.
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Citations
40 Claims
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1. A method of regulating admittance of a number of TCP connection requests to a plurality of servers that support to a plurality of applications and a plurality of customers, each of the customers having electronic business activity hosted by the plurality of servers on the basis of a service level agreement that specifies a minimum TCP connection rate that the customer is guaranteed, the method comprising the steps of:
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receiving incoming workload for the plurality of customers for the plurality of applications into a common buffer, the incoming workload comprising IP packets associated with existing TCP connections and TCP connection requests;
taking an IP packet from the common buffer;
detecting whether the IP packet taken from the common buffer is a TCP connection request packet or is associated with an existing TCP connection;
immediately sending the IP packet to the servers if the IP packet is associated with an existing TCP connection;
rejecting the IP packet if associated with a TCP connection request unless the IP packet is necessary to meet the minimum TCP connection rate for the customer associated with the TCP connection request or if sending the IP packet to the servers does not prevent meeting the minimum TCP connection rate for another of the customers. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method of controlling and guaranteeing a service level agreement based on a number of TCP connection requests supported to a plurality of applications and a plurality of customers having electronic business activity hosted by a server farm, each of the customers having a service level agreement that specifies a minimum TCP connection rate that the customer is guaranteed, the method comprising the steps of:
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receiving all incoming workload for the plurality of customers for the plurality of applications into a common buffer, the incoming workload comprising IP packets associated with existing TCP connections and TCP connection requests;
taking TCP connection request packets from the common buffer on a first in, first out basis; and
controlling flow of the IP packets from the common buffer to the server farm for each application and each customer so as to provide at least the minimum TCP connection rate for each customer and each application by regulating flow of the TCP connection request packets to the server farm, the controlling step comprising;
detecting whether an IP packet is a TCP connection request packet or associated with an existing TCP connection;
immediately admitting IP packets associated with existing TCP connections;
admitting TCP connection request packets if necessary to meet the minimum TCP connection rate for the customer associated with the TCP connection request; and
admitting a TCP connection request packet of one of the customers if doing so does not prevent meeting the minimum TCP connection rate for another of the plurality of customers. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A system for regulating admittance of a number of TCP connection requests to a plurality of servers that support to a plurality of applications and a plurality of customers, each of the customers having electronic business activity hosted by the plurality of servers on the basis of a service level agreement that specifies a minimum TCP connection rate that the customer is guaranteed, the system comprising:
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a common buffer for receiving incoming workload for the plurality of customers for the plurality of applications, the incoming workload comprising IP packets associated with existing TCP connections and TCP connection requests; and
regulator means for taking an IP packet from the common buffer, detecting whether the IP packet is a TCP connection request packet or is associated with an existing TCP connection, immediately sending the IP packet to the servers if the IP packet is associated with an existing TCP connection, and reiecting the IP packet if associated with a TCP connection request unless the IP packet is necessary to meet the minimum TCP connection rate for the customer associated with the TCP connection request or if sending the IP packet to the servers does not prevent meeting the minimum TCP connection rate for another of the customer. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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32. A system of controlling and guaranteeing a service level agreement based on a number of TCP connection requests supported to a plurality of applications and a plurality of customers having electronic business activity hosted by a server farm, each of the customers having a service level agreement that specifies a minimum TCP connection rate that the customer is guaranteed, the system comprising:
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a common buffer into which is received all incoming workload for the plurality of customers for the plurality of applications, the incoming workload comprising IP packets associated with existing TCP connections and TCP connection requests;
a gatekeeper that takes the IP packets from the common buffer on a first in, first out basis and controls flow of the IP packets from the common buffer to the server farm for each application and each customer so as to provide at least the minimum TCP connection rate for each customer and each application by regulating flow of the IP packets to the server farm, the gatekeeper being operable to detect whether an IP packet is a TCP connection request packet or associated with an existing TCP connection, immediately admit IP packets associated with existing TCP connections, admit a TCP connection request packet if necessary to meet the minimum TCP connection rate for the customer associated with the TCP connection request, and admit a TCP connection request packet of one of the customers if doing so does not prevent meeting the minimum TCP connection rate for another of the plurality of customers. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40)
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Specification