Patent ID: 6578066
Filing Date: 2003-06-10
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A distributed load-balancing Internet server system for providing web-based content and services to be redundantly delivered to many clients, comprising:a domain name system (DNS) server for receiving a DNS-lookup request from a network user for a conversion of a particular uniform resource locator (URL) for a domain host name to a numeric Internet Protocol (IP) address, wherein said network user exists in a particular geographical area that can be discerned from a user Ip address; a plurality of web-server sites that are geographically diverse and accessible to said network user, wherein each duplicates another in its web-based content and services that relate to said particular URL; a policy manager that monitors the health and response performance of each of the plurality of web-server sites, and that maintains a list of such ones of the plurality of web-server sites according to their individual accessibility and geographic location; and a DNS-query to IP-address converter connected to receive said DNS-lookup request from said network user, and connected to consult the policy manager for a preferred one of the plurality of web-server sites to respond to such DNS-lookup request, and further connected to provide said network user with an IP-address of said preferred one of the plurality of web-server sites; wherein the policy manager further includes a response-time matrix and handoff table that maintains said list; wherein: the policy manager further includes a hand-off weight index that corresponds to a best-performing to a worst performing web-server site and a statistically configured weight that is multiplied by a relative positions in the ordered hand-off list of a server switch.