Network connection hand-off using state transformations

摘要

Some embodiments provide a director agent, a server agent, and a specialized hand-off protocol for improving scalability and resource usage within a server farm. A first network connection is established between a client and the director agent in order to receive a content request from the client from which to select a server from a set of servers that is responsible for hosting the requested content. A second network connection is established between the server agent that is associated with the selected server and a protocol stack of the selected server. The first network connection is handed-off to the server agent using the specialized hand-off protocol. The server agent performs network connection state parameter transformations between the two connections to create a network connection through which content can be passed from the selected server to the client without passing through the director.

主权项

1. A method for handing-off a network connection, the method comprising:
establishing a first network connection between a client and a first server, wherein establishing the first network connection comprises allocating a first set of state parameters for communicating over the first network connection; processing at the first server, a request for content that is received over the first network connection from the client, wherein processing the content request comprises selecting a second server from a plurality of servers to respond to said request; passing a connection hand-off request from the first server to the second server using a connectionless oriented protocol, wherein passing the connection hand-off request comprises passing a single packet using the connectionless oriented protocol, said single packet encapsulating the first set of state parameters and said request from the first server to the second server without establishing a connection between the first server and the second server; establishing a second network connection with a different second set of state parameters, the second network connection bridging the first network connection to a protocol stack of the second server; and responding to the request by transforming the second set of state parameters of packets comprising the content and passing over the second network connection to the first set of state parameters for passing to the client over the first network connection.