Apparatus, method and system for improving application performance across a communications network

• US 7,085,825 B1
• Filed: 05/04/2001
• Issued: 08/01/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Cimpress Schweiz GmbH (Cimpress Plc)
• Original Assignee: Freewebs Incorporated (Cimpress Plc)
• Inventors: Pishevar, Shervin, Bloch, Lewis, Morris, Drew, Savarese, Daniel F., Walsh, Kevin Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): Popovici, Dov
• Assistant Examiner(s): Patel, Niketa I.
• Application Number:
  US09/849,879
• Time in Patent Office: 1,915 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 709/238, 709/241, 709220-222, 709/226, 718100-106
• US Class Current: 709/221
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/101 based on network conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1029 using data related to the state of servers by a load balancer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1031 Controlling of the operation of servers by a load balancer, e.g. adding or removing servers that serve requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context

Abstract

An apparatus, method and system to enable dynamic replication of Web servers across a wide area in response to access patterns by Web clients as well as in response to customer requests. The method for dynamically replicating one or more parent nodes on a network in response to a user request by a policy manager. The policy manager transmits the user request to an event module. The event module transmits the user request to a data consistency module, wherein the data consistency module maintains integrity of the data on the parent node. The event system communicates with a resource management module to ensure proper utilization of network resources, and transmits the routing request to a request routing module for appropriately balancing the network load. The request routing module is capable of providing optimal routing based on the network resources.

Claims

1. A method for event routing in a network comprising more than one node, the method comprising:

assigning a node to a user;

storing user data only on the node assigned to the user;

receiving a request from the user;

parsing the request to obtain values therefrom;

determining whether the node can handle an event corresponding to the request based on the values, and when the node can not handle the event;

identifying a plurality of nodes capable of handling the event based on the values;

determining node usage of the plurality of nodes;

selecting an appropriate node from the plurality of nodes for handling the event, based on the node usage; and

copying applications and the user data from the node assigned to the user to the appropriate node, after which the appropriate node handles the request.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of nodes capable of handling the event are identified by comparing a module type value in the request to a node lookup table located on the network.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the node usage is determined by ranking the plurality of nodes in accordance with usage statistics in a resource usage list.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the appropriate node for performing the event thereon is selected based on a least-used node algorithm.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the appropriate node for performing the event thereon is selected based on an algorithm for determining a least-used node for an anticipated time of use.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the appropriate node for performing the event thereon is selected based on an algorithm for determining a node most capable of performing the event.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the request is parsed to obtain values of a plurality of fields for making comparison to data stored in the node lookup table and the resource usage list.