Patent ID: 6460082
Filing Date: 2002-10-01
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
A system for administering resources in heterogeneous server devices included in a distributed wide area computer network, said resources including media content and service resources for providing said media content to clients, said system comprising:a) for each of said server devices, a first resource pool comprising resources for providing media services and capable of being locally administered; and a second resource pool comprising resources for providing media services, and capable of being remotely administered; each of said media services having an associated homogeneous service unit comprising a resource envelop representing a commitment of resources for provisioning a media service by a particular server device, and a metadata construct providing information for characterizing types of services that may make use of the service unit and for customizing said commitment of resources when provisioning a media service; and b) an administrator device for receiving client requests and determining a server device to provide a requested service, said administrator device accessing said homogeneous service units and comparing said homogeneous service units of associated server devices according to a predetermined criteria provided in an associated metadata construct to determine said server device, whereby said homogeneous server units provide a basis for integrating management of services and resources of heterogeneous server devices in said distributed wide area network.