Patent ID: 7908337

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving, at an information object repository, a request from a client for an information object at an address identified by a uniform resource locator (URL); mapping the URL to a corresponding anycast address for the information object, wherein the information object repository is selected according to specified performance metrics by mapping an address of the client to one or more addresses of information object repositories and to one or more addresses of routers that have a best type-of-service distance to the address of the client, wherein the mapping the address of the client to the one or more addresses of information object repositories and to the one or more addresses of routers is performed by executing a Web Information Locator by Distance (WILD) communication protocol between the routers that store one or more first type-of-service distances from one or more information object repositories to the address of the client and one or more second type-of-service distances from one or more routers to the address of the client, wherein the routers communicate to each other WILD update messages to update mapping of client address ranges to the addresses of Web caches and redirecting routers, wherein WILD update message includes a basic routing table, a list of type-of-service distances from the Web caches to destinations, and a list of type-of-service distances from the redirecting routers to the destinations, wherein the WILD communication protocol runs on top of a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP); determining whether the anycast address can be resolved into a real unicast address that is uniquely identified for the information object in the Internet; resolving the anycast address for the information object to the unicast address for the information object, if the corresponding anycast address can be resolved into the unicast address, wherein resolving the anycast address comprises sending an anycast resolution query to the anycast address according to an anycast address resolution protocol (AARP); returning a failure if the anycast address cannot be resolved into the unicast address; and obtaining a copy of the information object using the resolved unicast address.