Systems and methods for hierarchical global load balancing

• US 8,626,946 B2
• Filed: 08/03/2006
• Issued: 01/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/03/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Original Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Inventors: Kamath, Sandeep, Suganthi, Josephine, Shetty, Anil
• Primary Examiner(s): GOODCHILD, WILLIAM J
• Application Number:
  US11/462,345
• Publication Number:
  US 20080034111A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,714 Days
• Field of Search: 709/238
• US Class Current: 709/238
• 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 67/1012 based on compliance of requirements or conditions with available server resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1029 using data related to the state of servers by a load balancer
• 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 67/2885 Hierarchically arranged intermediate devices, e.g. for hierarchical caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/289 Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data consumer application, e.g. in same machine, in same home or in same sub-network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/163 In-band adaptation of TCP data exchange; In-band control procedures

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for providing a hierarchy of appliances to access resources across branch offices. A method comprises: establishing, by a first aggregator appliance, connections with a first plurality of branch office appliances; establishing, by a second aggregator appliance, connections with a second plurality of branch office appliances, the first plurality not having information identifying the second plurality; receiving, by the first aggregator appliance, from a first branch office appliance a request from a client for access to a resource; identifying, by the first aggregator appliance via the second aggregator appliance, a second branch office appliance from the second plurality to service the request; transmitting, by the first aggregator appliance, to the first branch office appliance information identifying the second branch office appliance; and establishing, by the first branch office appliance, a connection with the second branch office appliance. Corresponding systems are also described.

Claims

1. A method for providing a hierarchy of appliances to more efficiently access resources across a plurality of branch offices, the method comprising:

(a) establishing, by a first aggregator appliance, connections with a first plurality of branch office appliances, each of the first plurality of branch office appliances providing access via one or more connections to one or more services of a first plurality of servers to a first plurality of client devices in a first branch office;

(b) establishing, by a second aggregator appliance, connections with a second plurality of branch office appliances, each of the second plurality of branch office appliances providing access via one or more connections to one or more services of a second plurality of servers to a second plurality of client devices in a second branch office, the first plurality of branch office appliances not having information identifying the second plurality of branch office appliances;

(c) establishing a connection between the first aggregator appliance and the second aggregator appliance to exchange aggregated information about branch office appliances not connected to an aggregator appliance receiving the information, the first aggregator appliance receiving from the second aggregator appliance aggregated information about operation of the second plurality of branch office appliances collected by the second aggregator appliance;

(d) receiving, by the first aggregator appliance, from a first branch office appliance of the first plurality of branch offices appliances a request from a client device for access to a resource;

(e) identifying, by the first aggregator appliance via the aggregated information from the second aggregator appliance, a second branch office appliance from the second plurality of branch office appliances to service the request;

(f) transmitting, by the first aggregator appliance, to the first branch office appliance information identifying the second branch office appliance; and

(g) establishing, by the client device, a connection with the second branch office appliance.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein step (f) further comprises transmitting, by the first branch office appliance, information identifying the second branch office appliance to the client device.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising establishing, by the client device via the first branch office appliance, a second connection via the second branch office appliance with a server.

4. The method of claim 3, comprising communicating, by the first aggregator appliance, information about the first plurality of branch office appliances to the second aggregator appliance.

5. The method of claim 3, comprising communicating, by the second aggregator appliance, information about the second plurality of branch office appliances to the first aggregator appliance.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising establishing, by the first aggregator appliance, communications with the second aggregator appliance.

7. The method of claim 1, determining, by the first aggregator appliance, information on one of performance or operational characteristics for each of the first plurality of branch office appliances.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein step (e) comprising selecting, by the first aggregator appliance, the second branch office appliance based on one of the performance or operational characteristics.

9. The method of claim 1, determining, by the second aggregator appliance, one of performance or operational characteristics of each of the second plurality of branch office appliances.

10. The method of claim 9, comprising accelerating, by one of the first office branch office appliance or the second branch office appliance, communications between the client device and the server.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein accelerating comprises using one or more of the following techniques:

compression;

TCP connection pooling;

TCP connection multiplexing;

TCP buffering; and

caching.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the first aggregator appliance or the second aggregator appliance is deployed at a data center.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the client device is deployed at the first branch office.

14. A system for providing a hierarchy of appliances to more efficiently access resources across a plurality of branch offices, the system comprising:

a first aggregator appliance establishing connections with a first plurality of branch office appliances, each of the first plurality of branch office appliances providing access via one or more connections to one or more services of a first plurality of servers to a first plurality of client devices in a first branch office;

a second aggregator appliance establishing connections with a second plurality of branch office appliances, each of the second plurality of branch office appliances providing access via one or more connections to one or more services of second plurality of servers to a second plurality of client devices in a second branch office, the first plurality of branch office appliances not having information identifying the second plurality of branch office appliances; and

wherein a connection is established between the first aggregator appliance and the second aggregator appliance to exchange aggregated information about branch office appliances not connected to an aggregator appliance receiving the information, the first aggregator appliance receiving from the second aggregator appliance aggregated information about operation of the second plurality of branch office appliances collected by the second aggregator appliance; and

a first branch office appliance of the first plurality of branch offices transmitting to the first aggregator appliance a request from a client device for access to a resource;

wherein the first aggregator appliance identifies via the second aggregator appliance, a second branch office appliance from the second plurality of branch office appliances to service the request, and transmitting to the first branch office appliance information identifying the second branch office appliance; and

the client device establishes a connection with the second branch office appliance.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the first branch office appliance transmits information identifying the second branch office appliance to the client device.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the client device establishes via the first branch office appliance a second connection via the second branch office appliance with a server.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the first aggregator appliance establishes communications with the second aggregator appliance.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the first aggregator appliance communicates information about the first plurality of branch office appliances to the second aggregator appliance.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein the second aggregator appliance communicates information about the second plurality of branch office appliances to the first aggregator appliance.

20. The system of claim 14, wherein the first aggregator appliance determines information on one of performance or operational characteristics for each of the first plurality of branch office appliances.

21. The system of claim 14, wherein the second aggregator appliance determines one of performance or operational characteristics of each of the second plurality of branch office appliances.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the first aggregator appliance selects the second branch office appliance based on one of the performance or operational characteristics.

23. The system of claim 14, wherein one of the first office branch office appliance or the second branch office appliance accelerates communications between the client device and a server.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein accelerating comprises using one or more of the following techniques:

compression;

TCP connection pooling;

TCP connection multiplexing;

TCP buffering; and

caching.

25. The system of claim 14, wherein one of the first aggregator appliance or the second aggregator appliance is deployed at a data center.

26. A method for providing a hierarchy of aggregator appliances and branch office appliances to more efficiently access resources on servers across branch offices, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) establishing, by a first aggregator appliance, a first connection with a first branch office appliance, the first branch office appliance intermediary to the first aggregator appliance, a first plurality of client devices, and a first plurality of servers;

(b) establishing, by a second aggregator appliance, a second connection with a second branch office appliance, the second branch office appliance intermediary to the second aggregator appliance, a second plurality of client devices, and a second plurality of servers, the first branch office appliance lacking information identifying the second branch office appliance;

(c) establishing a connection between the first aggregator appliance and the second aggregator appliance to exchange aggregated information about branch office appliances not connected to an aggregator appliance receiving the information, the first aggregator appliance receiving from the second aggregator appliance aggregated information about operation of the second plurality of branch office appliances collected by the second aggregator appliance;

(d) transmitting, by the second branch office appliance, to the second aggregator appliance aggregated information about the second branch office appliance created from information received from the second plurality of servers;

(e) receiving, by the first aggregator appliance, via the first branch office appliance a request for access to a resource from a client device of the first plurality of client devices;

(f) identifying, by the first aggregator appliance based on information about the second branch office appliance received from the second aggregator appliance, the second branch office appliance to service the request; and

(g) establishing, by the client device of the first plurality of client devices, a third connection with the second branch office appliance to access the requested resource on a server of the second plurality of servers.