Patent ID: 8166203

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for selecting a server from a plurality of servers to process a query, the method comprising: defining a length for a present time interval based upon an output of a first random number generator; defining a random seed for the present time interval based upon an output of a second random number generator; converting a query into a query number; performing a hashing operation on a combination of the query number and the random seed to generate a hash value associated with the query and the present time interval; selecting, based on the hash value, a server from a plurality of servers to process the query; sending the query to the selected server; and wherein the performing a hashing operation is performed by a processor; and re-defining the time interval length based upon another output of the first random number generator and re-defining the random seed based upon another output of the second random number generator upon an expiration of the present time interval.