초록 ▼

A multi-node server transmits world-wide-web pages to network-based browser clients. A load balancer receives all requests from clients because they use a virtual address for the entire site. The load balancer makes a connection with the client and waits for the URL from the client. The URL specifie

A multi-node server transmits world-wide-web pages to network-based browser clients. A load balancer receives all requests from clients because they use a virtual address for the entire site. The load balancer makes a connection with the client and waits for the URL from the client. The URL specifies the requested resource. The load balancer waits to perform load balancing until after the location of the requested resource is known. The connection and URL request are passed from the load balancer to a second node having the requested resource. The load balancer re-plays the initial connection packet sequence to the second node, but modifies the address to that for the second node. The network software is modified to generate the physical network address of the second node, but then changes the destination address back to the virtual address. The second node transmits the requested resource directly to the client, with the virtual address as its source. Since all requests are first received by the load balancer which determines the physical location of the requested resource, nodes may contain different resources. The entire contents of the web site is not mirrored onto all nodes. Network bottlenecks are avoided since the nodes transmit the large files back to the client directly, bypassing the load balancer. Client browsers can cache the virtual address, even though different nodes with different physical addresses service requests.

대표청구항 ▼

[ We claim:] [1.] A web site for sending resources to a browser on a client connected to a computer network, the web site comprising:a network connection point for receiving incoming data packets from the computer network and for transmitting outgoing data packets to the computer network;local netwo

[ We claim:] [1.] A web site for sending resources to a browser on a client connected to a computer network, the web site comprising:a network connection point for receiving incoming data packets from the computer network and for transmitting outgoing data packets to the computer network;local network, coupled to the network connection point, for transferring data packets;a plurality of network nodes containing web servers with resources, the plurality of network nodes connected to the local network, the plurality of network nodes including means for transmitting the resources as outgoing data packets to the client, the plurality of network nodes including means for sending the outgoing data packets over the local network to the network connection point;wherein the plurality of network nodes containing web servers together contain all resources at the web site, but each network node in the plurality of network nodes contains only a portion of all the resources at the web site;a balancer network node containing a load balancer, receiving the incoming data packets transmitted over the local network from the network connection point, the load balancer for determining an assigned server in the plurality of network nodes for responding to a request from the client in an incoming data packet, the load balancer including means for transferring a connection to the client to the assigned server;wherein the balancer network node containing the load balancer is connected to the network connection point by the local network which is also connected to the plurality of network nodes,wherein network nodes are segregated to contain different resources, and wherein all resources at the web site are not mirrored to all network nodes at the web site,wherein the load balancer further comprises:content means for storing an indication of which network nodes in the plurality of network nodes contain each resource;URL means, receiving incoming data packets from the client containing a request for a resource, for determining a requested resource from the incoming data packets;compare means, coupled to the content means and coupled to the URL means, for comparing the requested resource to the indication of which network nodes in the plurality of network nodes contain each resource, and for outputting a list of network nodes containing the requested resource;balancing means, receiving the list of network nodes containing the requested resource, for choosing as an assigned node one of the network nodes in the list of network nodes,whereby the incoming data packets are routed to the balancer network node but outgoing data packets bypass the balancer network node and whereby the load balancer chooses an assigned node based on the resources contained by each network node, the load balancer performing resource-based load balancing.