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Method and apparatus for balancing distributed applications
| Details |
Inventors: Logston, Gary; Ladd, Patrick;
Assignee: Tranceive Technologies, Inc. (Carlsbad, CA)
Primary Examiner: Maung; Zarni
Assistant Examiner: Hu; Jinsong
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Gazdzinski & Associates
An improved method and apparatus for balancing distributed applications within a client/server network, such as a cable television network, is disclosed. In one aspect of the invention, a method of balancing the load of distributed application client portions (DACPs) across various server portions (DASPs) and server machines is disclosed. Statistics are maintained by one or more software processes with respect to the available resources of the servers and their loading; new process threads and/or distributed application server portions are allocated across the servers to maintain optimal system performance as client device loading increases or changes. In another aspect of the invention, a novel object-oriented distributed application software architecture employing both vertical and horizontal partitions and "mutable" (i.e., transportable) objects is disclosed. The mutable objects may reside on either the server or client portions of the distributed application while maintaining at least one network partition. A runtime environment adapted for the operation of the foregoing object-oriented distributed application, including an efficient message protocol useful for interprocess communication, is also disclosed. Methods for downloading the DACP from the servers, and scaling the DACP at download based on client device configuration, are further disclosed. |
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION The present invention satisfies the aforementioned needs by providing an improved method and apparatus for balancing and dynamically distributing the various components of a distributed application within a client-server environment.
In a first aspect of the invention, an improved method of starting and downloading the client portion of a distributed application on a client-server network is disclosed.
The method generally comprises the steps of providing a distributed application having a plurality of separable modules; disposing the distributed application on a server within the network; transferring a first portion of the plurality of modules to a client device via a first communication channel; attempting to establish a second "reverse" communication channel between the client device and the server; detecting when the reverse channel is not established, and subsequently transferring additional modules of the distributed application to the client device from said server in a predetermined increment until the second communication channel can be successfully established.
In one exemplary embodiment, a number of different secondary communication channel options including a cable modem (DOCSIS), out-of-band (OOB), and telephone company (telco) modem, are used hierarchically such that if the first selected channel in the hierarchy can not be established, the second is next tried, and so forth.
Downloading of the communications modules associated with these channels is also performed hierarchically so that only the minimum portion of the distributed application necessary to facilitate communication via the reverse channel is downloaded to the client device.
In a second aspect of the invention, an improved server/head-end MSO architecture adapted for distributed application load balancing is disclosed.
The improved head-end architecture generally comprises a plurality of servers arranged in a server farm; a distributed application comprising at least one server portion disposed on at least one of the servers in the farm; a runtime entity comprising a plurality of software processes which facilitate the allocation of client device load between the various servers in the farm; and a message protocol adapted for communication between the software processes of the runtime entity and between the processes and the server portion
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