Patent ID: 8504641

Claim:
A method of assigning a plurality of client systems to a plurality of servers providing content, comprising: calculating a network cost for assigning a first client system to each of the plurality of servers; wherein calculating the network cost includes: identifying an ingress point for the first client system; identifying possible egress points for the first client system; calculating the network cost based on traffic from the ingress point to one of the servers and traffic from the server to one of the possible egress point; determining an optimal rule set effective to reduce a rule set cost of serving the plurality of client systems, the optimal rule set including assigning the first client system to a substantially optimal server of the plurality of servers; and grouping the first client system and a second client system into the rule set when the network cost of the rule set is lower than a sum of network costs of a rule plus a rule cost for each of the first client system and the second client system, wherein the rule set cost includes a total network cost and a total rule cost, the total network cost being the sum of network costs associated with serving each client system from an assigned server, and the total rule cost including a cost of distributing and processing rules in the optimal rule set.