摘要 |
A multiplicity of users is connected to a network, as are m servers. The users are organized into n user groups, each including a plurality of users, such that all the users in a group are part of a common database which permits intercommunication between them. That database is duplicated in a subset of p of the servers, and the subset shares the processing load of the corresponding user group. When a user in the respective user group attempts to communicate with another user, one of the servers in the subset p will accommodate the necessary processing initiate set up of the connection. At the same time, each server accommodates users in q different groups. Should one of the servers fail, each of the other servers in each subset p accommodating the failing server's users will accommodate the failed server's share of those users. Thus, the processing load of each user group is handled with a redundancy of p (the number of servers in a subset), ensuring a high level of availability.
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