Arbiter Server Selection via Competitive Evaluation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current client-server architectures lack effective mechanisms to manage server workload and responsiveness, leading to overloading and reduced performance, as they fail to account for the overall responsiveness of servers in distributed processing environments.
Innovation Solution
An arbiter system that coordinates a competitive evaluation among active servers to select the most responsive server for processing service requests, considering both workload and resource dependencies, by forwarding requests in parallel and monitoring completion times to determine the preferred server.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If clients freely select servers for service requests, then server selection flexibility is improved, but server overload and reduced responsiveness occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an arbiter as an intermediary component that sits between clients and servers. The arbiter receives service requests from clients, coordinates competitive evaluations among multiple servers, and directs requests to the most responsive server. This mediator resolves the contradiction by maintaining client flexibility in server selection while ensuring server responsiveness through centralized coordination and load distribution.
2Ease of operation
If service requests are concentrated in one or more servers, then ease of request handling is improved, but server overload and processing slowdown occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the server selection process into multiple independent servers that can be evaluated in parallel. Instead of concentrating requests on a single server, the system divides the workload across multiple servers, with each server independently processing requests and reporting completion times. This segmentation prevents overload on any single server while maintaining simple request handling through the arbiter's coordinated distribution.
3Reliability
If competitive evaluation among multiple servers is implemented, then server responsiveness selection is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The arbiter serves as a central intermediary that manages the complexity of competitive evaluation. Rather than requiring complex peer-to-peer coordination between servers and clients, the arbiter centralizes the evaluation logic. It sends requests to multiple servers, collects completion times, and determines the most responsive server. This intermediary approach improves server responsiveness selection while containing system complexity within the arbiter component.
4Reliability
If load balancing mechanisms are added to manage server workload, then server overload prevention is improved, but additional control mechanisms and system complexity are required
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a self-service load balancing approach where servers automatically report their own completion times to the arbiter. Each server independently evaluates its own performance by timing request processing and communicating results back. This self-service mechanism prevents server overload through automatic load distribution based on actual performance data, without requiring complex external control mechanisms. The arbiter simply collects and acts on the servers' self-reported metrics.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method of server selection using competitive evaluation includes receiving a service request at an arbiter running on a computing device, determining whether the service request is associated with a preferred server, and forwarding the service request to the preferred server when the service request is associated with the preferred server. When the service request is not associated with the preferred server, the method further includes using the arbiter to coordinate a competitive evaluation among a plurality of active servers, selecting as the preferred server a first one of the active servers that completes processing of the service request first, and associating the preferred server with the service request. The method further includes receiving a response to the service request from the preferred server and returning the response to a client. The service request is received from the client.