Integrated point of presence server network

• US 7,502,858 B2
• Filed: 05/07/2002
• Issued: 03/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/22/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Akamai Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Akamai Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Swildens, Eric Sven-Johan, Day, Richard David, Gupta, Ajit Kumar
• Primary Examiner(s): Abdullahi; Salad
• Application Number:
  US10/141,194
• Publication Number:
  US 20020152309A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,499 Days
• Field of Search: 709/225, 709223-224, 709/226, 709/105, 709/217, 709/201, 370/289, 711/118, 705/52
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/14 Charging , metering or billing arrangements for data wireline or wireless communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5032 Generating service level reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/12 Network monitoring probes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/55 Testing of service level quality, e.g. simulating service usage
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4541 Directories for service discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10015 Access to distributed or replicated servers, e.g. using brokers
• 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 67/1038 Load balancing arrangements to avoid a single path through a load balancer
• 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 67/288 Distributed intermediate devices, i.e. intermediate devices for interaction with other intermediate devices on the same level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A network of point of presence servers sharing a hostname includes a first network probe server configured to determine traffic loads of a plurality of customer web servers, and configured to determine latency of web cache servers in the network of point of presence servers, each of the customer web servers storing a web page, a first domain name server coupled to the first network probe server, configured to receive a request from a user for the web page at a first web address, the first web address including the hostname, configured to determine a customer web server from the plurality of customer web servers that is appropriate for the request, the customer web server having a traffic load lower than traffic loads of remaining customer web servers from the plurality of customer web servers, configured to determine an IP address of the customer web server, configured to return the IP address of the customer web server, configured to receive a request from the user for static content on the web page at a second web address, the second web address including the hostname, and configured to determine a web cache server from the network of point of presence servers that is appropriate for the request, the web cache server having a latency lower than latency of remaining web cache servers within the network network of point of presence servers, and the web cache server configured to retrieve the static content, and to provide the static content to the user.

Claims

1. A method for load balancing Web page content request traffic across a network of customer Web servers and Web cache servers, comprising the steps of:

providing a plurality of customer Web servers;

wherein customer Web servers belonging to a customer_serve dynamic Web page content to requesting users;

wherein said Web cache servers serve static Web page content directly to requesting users;

performing load balancing among said customer Web servers for dynamic Web page content requests from requesting users;

wherein said customer Web server load balancing step simultaneously performs load balancing across customer Web servers belonging to a plurality of customers;

performing load balancing among said Web cache servers for static Web page content requests from requesting users;

wherein a customer pays a fee to a service for use the plurality of Web cache servers and the load balancing among the Web servers belonging to the customer performed by said customer Web server load balancing step; and

wherein said customer Web server load balancing step and said Web cache server load balancing step are performed on a common name server.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

providing a network probe server;

wherein said network probe server measures service metrics of said customer Web servers; and

wherein said network probe server measures service metrics of said Web cache servers.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said service metrics include, but are not limited to:

a measurement of the amount of traffic and the load on a POP server at a recent period in time, response times for HTTP service, FTP service, POP server CPU load, POP server memory load and/or utilization, availability, persistence data, client weighting factors, or monetary costs.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein said customer Web server load balancing step uses said customer Web server service metrics measurements to direct a dynamic Web page content request to an appropriate customer Web server having a service metric measurement lower than other appropriate customer Web servers.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein said Web cache server load balancing step uses said Web cache server service metrics measurements to direct a static Web page content request to an appropriate Web cache server having a service metric measurement lower than other appropriate Web cache servers.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

providing a plurality of network probe servers;

wherein a network probe server measures service metrics of said customer Web servers from said network probe server'"'"'s location; and

wherein a network probe server measures service metrics of said Web cache servers from said network probe server'"'"'s location.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said service metrics include, but are not limited to:

a measurement of the amount of traffic and the load on a POP server at a recent period in time, response times for HTTP service, FTP service, POP server CPU load, POP server memory load and/or utilization, availability, persistence data, client weighting factors, or monetary costs.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein said customer Web server load balancing means stel2 uses said customer Web server service metric measurements from said plurality of network probe servers to direct a dynamic Web page content request to an appropriate customer Web server having a server metric measurements lower than other appropriate customer Web servers.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein said Web cache server load balancing step uses said Web cache server service metric measurements from said plurality of network probe servers to direct a static Web page content request to an appropriate Web cache server having server metric measurements lower than other appropriate Web cache servers.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said customer Web servers store static Web page content.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein when a Web cache server is given a request for static Web page content that is not stored on said Web cache server, said Web cache server requests said static Web page content from an appropriate customer Web server;

and wherein said Web cache server stores said static Web page content from said appropriate customer Web server and forwards said content to the requesting user.

12. An apparatus for load balancing Web page content request traffic across a network of customer Web servers and Web cache servers, comprising:

a plurality of Web cache servers;

wherein customer Web servers belonging to a customer serve dynamic Web page content to requesting users;

wherein said Web cache servers serve static Web page content directly to requesting users;

a module for performing load balancing among said customer Web servers for dynamic Web page content requests from requesting users, the module for performing load balancing among said customer Web servers storing customer Web server information on a computer storage medium;

wherein said customer Web server load balancing module simultaneously performs load balancing across customer Web servers belonging to a plurality of customers;

a module for performing load balancing among said Web cache servers for static Web page content requests from requesting users;

wherein a customer pays a fee to a service for use of the plurality of Web cache servers and use of said customer Web server load balancing means module; and

wherein said customer Web server load balancing means module and said Web cache server load balancing means module are co-located on a name server.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising:

a network probe server;

wherein said network probe server measures service metrics of said customer Web servers; and

wherein said network probe server measures service metrics of said Web cache servers.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein said service metrics include, but are not limited to:

a measurement of the amount of traffic and the load on a POP server at a recent period in time, response times for HTTP service, FTP service, POP server CPU load, POP server memory load and/or utilization, availability, persistence data, client weighting factors, or monetary costs.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein said customer Web server load balancing module uses said customer Web server service metrics measurements to direct a dynamic Web page content request to an appropriate customer Web server having a service metric measurement lower than other appropriate customer Web servers.

16. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein said Web cache server load balancing means uses said Web cache server service metrics measurements to direct a static Web page content request to an appropriate Web cache server having a service metric measurement lower than other appropriate Web cache servers.

17. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising:

a plurality of network probe servers;

wherein a network probe server measures service metrics of said customer Web servers from said network probe server'"'"'s location; and

wherein a network probe server measures service metrics of said Web cache servers from said network probe server'"'"'s location.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein said service metrics include, but are not limited to:

a measurement of the amount of traffic and the load on a POP server at a recent period in time, response times for HTTP service, FTP service, POP server CPU load, POP server memory load and/or utilization, availability, persistence data, client weighting factors, or monetary costs.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein said customer Web server load balancing module uses said customer Web server service metric measurements from said plurality of network probe servers to direct a dynamic Web page content request to an appropriate customer Web server having a server metric measurements lower than other appropriate customer Web servers.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein said Web cache server load balancing module uses said Web cache server service metric measurements from said plurality of network probe servers to direct a static Web page content request to an appropriate Web cache server having server metric measurements lower than other appropriate Web cache servers.

21. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein said customer Web servers store static Web page content.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein when a Web cache server is given a request for static Web page content that is not stored on said Web cache server, said Web cache server requests said static Web page content from an appropriate customer Web server;

and wherein said Web cache server stores said static Web page content from said appropriate customer Web server and forwards said content to the requesting user.