Server selection mechanism with pluggable selection policies

Abstract

Most Internet service providers offer services using multiple servers in order to avoid service congestion. In such environments, problems have arisen in regard to the client not knowing which server to choose. This has led to the need for a server selection mechanism that will automatically select the optimal server. In our paper, we first identify the requirements of a server selection mechanism, and then propose a novel mechanism that provides a satisfactory response to them. The mechanism has an extensive range of usability as a result of being based on a Domain Name System (DNS), and enables a diversity of server selection policies to be integrated with it. These server selection policies also allow decisions to be made based on roundtrip times and other network status parameters. Allowing selection policies to be changed dynamically ensures compatibility with a variety of conditions. We used a prototype system to conduct assessment experiments on a group of widely distributed servers and to show the effectiveness of our server selection mechanism. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn Pt 3, 89(8): 53–61, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ecjc.20258