REAL-TIME, LOW MEMORY ESTIMATION OF UNIQUE CLIENT COMPUTERS COMMUNICATING WITH A SERVER COMPUTER

摘要

Computer systems and methods for estimating the number of client computers actively coupled to a server computer system in real-time are discussed herein. Specifically, systems and methods are discussed for a server computer system receiving heartbeat messages from a plurality of client computers and generating an estimate of the number of client computers actively coupled to the server computer system in real-time without locks, such as a database table lock. A heartbeat message from a client computer need not include a client or user identifier. In an embodiment, the memory footprint/overhead is O(l), and may be a single whole number greater than zero, such as a 64-bit unsigned integer. Systems and methods are also discussed herein to calculate and reduce the expected error of the estimated number of active clients.

主权项

1. A system comprising:
a memory; one or more processors coupled to the memory and configured to:
receive, from a plurality of client computers, a first plurality of heartbeat messages;wherein each heartbeat message of the first plurality of heartbeat messages:
is sent by a client computer of the plurality of client computers, and includes a delta value that indicates an amount of time that has elapsed since a previous heartbeat message sent from the client computer;determine a first total amount of time based, at least in part, on the delta value from each heartbeat message of the first plurality of heartbeat messages;determine a total number of active client computers based, at least in part, on the first total amount of time and a defined amount of time in a first window.