Patent ID: 7284051

Claim:
A system, comprising: a plurality of client terminals and server terminals providing services to the client terminals via a network; a plurality of route load measuring units each provided in, or in a vicinity of, each of said server terminals and each measuring a respective load in a TCP or UDP delivery route from the route load measuring unit to one client terminal having issued a request for service out of said client terminals; and a relaying apparatus, comprising: a selecting unit which selects a route load measuring unit out of the plurality of route load measuring units as a primary destination of the request for service and the route load measuring unit selects one server terminal out of said server terminals as a secondary destination of the request for service from said one client terminal based on the load measured by said route load measuring units, wherein each of said route load measuring units monitors operating states of respective server terminal and when a request for service is received from said one client terminal, said selecting unit selects one server terminal out of said server terminals as the secondary destination of the request for service from said one client terminal based on the load and the operating states monitored by said load measuring units, wherein operating states include idle and active states; and a storing unit which stores the load measured at a pre-specified time interval by each of said route load measuring units, wherein when a request for service is received from said one client terminal, said selecting unit selects said one server terminal out of said server terminals as a destination of the request for service from said one client terminal based on the load stored in the storing unit, and wherein said route load measuring units each measures, as the load, an effective bandwidth of the route based on a plurality of parameters, wherein the parameters include a round-trip time, a maximum segment size, and an adjustable congestion-evading congestion window size for a server terminal utilizing TCP.