Patent ID: 8150965

Claim:
A network communication node, comprising: a request distribution manager that routes requests to a plurality of N servers in a communications network using a sequential round robin routing distribution under normal operating conditions, wherein when one of the plurality of N servers fails, the request distribution manager generates a modified round robin routing distribution, by generating a plurality of (N−1)! permutations of sequences for routing requests to a plurality of N servers, wherein N is a positive integer greater or equal to three and each permutation begins with a same predetermined server that combines the plurality of (N−1)! permutations of sequences for routing requests to the plurality of N servers, and that generates instructions for routing the requests to the plurality of N servers, based on the combination of the plurality of (N−1)! permutations; and a router that routes the requests to the plurality of N servers based on the instructions, wherein the (N−1)! permutations vary the order for routing the requests for all but the one of the plurality of N servers that has failed, such that requests are continued to be routed to the server that failed, by using the modified round robin routing distribution.