Patent ID: 7111063

Claim:
A distributed processing system, comprising: a client computer platform; a plurality of server computer platforms, each one of said plurality of server computer platforms having an instance of an application residing thereon; a messaging system for controlling the exchange of messages between said client computer platform and said plurality of server computer platforms, said messaging system including messaging services residing at said client computer platform and each one of said plurality of server computer platforms; and a time-distributed load balancing system residing at said client computer platform, said time-distributed load balancing system determining, for a message to be transferred to said application by said messaging system, which one of said plurality of server computer platforms is to receive said message based upon a time associated with said message and at least one message distribution rule requiring transfer of said message to a selected one of said plurality of server computer platforms if said time associated with said message falls within a corresponding one of a plurality of pre-determined time spans; said time associated with said message includes a value for a first unit of time and a value for a second unit of time; and each one of said plurality of pre-determined time spans encompassing a contiguous range of values for said second unit of time.