Patent ID: 7197547
Filing Date: 2007-03-27
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A load balanced server farm system for effecting electronic commerce over a data network, the system comprising: a load balancing system; and a plurality of servers in communication with the load balancing system, wherein each server includes a respective data cache; wherein the load balancing system is configured or designed to select, using a load balancing protocol, an available first server of the plurality of servers to process an initial packet received from a source device, and is further configured or designed to route subsequent packets received from the source device to the first server, wherein the first server includes a first data cache and is configured or designed to use state data stored on the first data cache for generating a first response to the source device, the state data corresponding to an electronic commerce session initiated between the source device and the first server, wherein the first server is configured or designed to initiate an electronic commerce session for the source device, and is configured or designed to generate session ID information including a session ID associated with the session initiated for the source device, wherein the first server is configured or designed to include the session ID information in the first response transmitted to the source device, wherein the first server is configured or designed to detect a cache miss in response to an attempt to access state data at the first data cache, said state data relating to the electronic commerce session associated with the session ID, and wherein the first server is configured or designed to retrieve state data associated with the session ID from a database into the first data cache in response to detecting said cache miss.