Network Traffic Management Apparatus for Content Request Distribution
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing network traffic management techniques fail to balance server load effectively in distributed networks, leading to unbalanced resource utilization and increased latency due to the assumption that all connections are equal in resource usage, resulting in hotspots and poor user experience.
Innovation Solution
A network traffic management apparatus that splits content requests into multiple requests for byte range portions, distributing them across multiple server computing devices to ensure balanced load and reduce the risk of hotspots, while guaranteeing a maximum content size and optimizing response time.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If connection-based load distribution is used, then requests are distributed across servers, but server load remains unbalanced because all connections are treated equally regardless of content size
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments content requests into multiple byte-range requests and distributes them to different servers. Instead of treating each content request as a single unit, the system divides large content requests into smaller chunks (e.g., first byte-range request, second byte-range request) that can be served by different servers simultaneously. This segmentation allows the system to handle large content requests without overloading a single server, thereby improving load balancing accuracy while maintaining request distribution efficiency.
2Productivity
If large content requests are serviced by single servers, then complete content can be delivered, but hotspots develop with substantial memory, processor cycle, and bandwidth usage
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides large content requests into multiple byte-range segments that can be served by different servers. For example, a large content request is split into a first byte-range request and a second byte-range request, which are then distributed to different servers in the pool. This approach allows complete content delivery while preventing any single server from becoming a hotspot with excessive memory, processor, or bandwidth usage.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines responses from multiple servers to fulfill a single content request. The network traffic management apparatus receives responses from multiple servers (each serving different byte-range requests) and merges them into a complete content response delivered to the client. This merging approach enables the system to deliver large content requests while distributing the processing load across multiple servers, maintaining both content delivery capability and server resource stability.
3Reliability
If all content requests are processed sequentially by single servers, then resource usage per server is manageable, but response time and user experience deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments content requests into parallel byte-range requests that can be processed simultaneously by multiple servers. Instead of processing all content requests sequentially on single servers, the system divides large content requests into chunks that are distributed across the server pool for parallel processing. This reduces response time while keeping individual server resource usage manageable.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent enables continuous parallel processing of content requests by maintaining multiple open connections to different servers simultaneously. The network traffic management apparatus can issue multiple byte-range requests in parallel and receive responses concurrently, eliminating idle time between sequential operations. This continuity of useful action reduces overall response time while distributing the workload across multiple servers to prevent resource overload.
Data Source
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AI summary
A method, non-transitory computer readable medium, and network traffic management apparatus that receives a request for content from a client computing device. A length of the content is determined. A plurality of requests for a portion of the length of the content is sent to a plurality of server computing devices, wherein the portion of the length of the content is specified as a byte range in a range header of each of the plurality of requests. A plurality of responses to the plurality of requests is received. At least a subset of the plurality of responses is output to the client computing device.