JP2001236294A - Server selecting method in network - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To automatically select a service having accurate and optimal information when performing access from a client side to a service group. SOLUTION: A client 7 which performs access to a server group 5 for selecting an optimal server is provided with a server information storing part 8 for receiving and storing server information 4, a server monitoring and communicating speed monitoring program 9 for checking the server information 4 received in the server information storing part 8 and for monitoring the communicating speed of each server, and a down-load data storing part 10 for storing the data down-loaded from one server based on the program 9. Thus, the server capable of realizing the highest communicating speed can be selected from the server group 5.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a server selecting method for connecting a client terminal device to a desired server via a network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when connecting from a client terminal device as a user terminal device to a server in a network, one is manually selected from a group of servers having the same data and the client terminal device (hereinafter simply referred to as a client terminal device). Connected).

In such a server selection method, a client manually selects a server that seems to be optimal. However, the client does not know the route of the network, so the server is selected based on experience. .

However, with the spread of the Internet in recent years and with the increase in the number of clients, the load on the server and the network has increased rapidly. For this reason, it is difficult for the client to select the server with the best communication speed. Has been requested.

To meet this demand, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. -283296, it has been proposed to record a communication record of a client and a server on a recording medium for each communication time zone, and to select an optimum server from the communication record. The method disclosed in this document checks the communication speed with other computers connected to the network, counts the communication speed with each computer for each measurement time, and based on the counting result, calculates the communication speed of the plurality of computers. One computer is selected from among them.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a server selection system for explaining an example of such a conventional system. As shown in FIG. 7, the client 7 makes the first to
It is connected to a server group 5 including third servers 1 to 3. The client 7 includes a data registration function program 12 and an application 13, a server speed check program 14 for measuring the communication speed of each of the servers 1 to 3 based on the data registration function program 12 and the application 13, A server speed log that records the measured server communication speed by transferring information between the server information management file 15 that controls the data registration function program 12 and the server speed check program 14, which stores the measurement results of the program 14. File 16.

As described above, the client 7 is provided with a medium for storing a record of communication with the servers 1 to 3, and selects an optimal server from the past communication results. Therefore, the conventional server selection method is an operation of selecting the most optimal server from past communication information.

[0008]

The above-described conventional method for selecting a server in a network has a drawback that, except for a group of servers that are always connected, the communication information is past data, so that it is not accurate information.

Conventionally, in the case of a server group to which a client connects for the first time, there is no communication record, so that there is a disadvantage that it is difficult to know which server is best to select.

Further, conventionally, since communication information is stored in a recording medium, there is also a problem that it is necessary to prepare a recording medium in a client computer.

An object of the present invention is to solve such a drawback, and to automatically select a server having an accurate and fastest transfer amount, and in particular, to receive a server based on server information. It is an object of the present invention to provide a server selection method in a network for automatically selecting the most optimal server from a group of servers having the same contents using the existing data.

[0012]

According to a method for selecting a server in a network according to the present invention, a plurality of servers each having the same data file form one server group, and a client terminal device connects to the server group via the Internet. In the method for selecting a server in a network connected to and selecting one of the servers, the client terminal device receives and stores server information owned by one of the servers in the server group. A storage unit,
A server monitoring and communication speed monitoring program for checking the server information received in the server information storage unit and monitoring a communication speed of each server; and a server monitoring and communication speed monitoring program for the one server based on the server monitoring and communication speed monitoring program. A download data storage unit for storing data downloaded from the data file, and selecting a server that realizes the fastest communication speed among the server group, and when the communication speed decreases during data transfer, Measure the communication speed of each server,
It is configured to perform communication by switching to the fastest server.

Further, according to the present invention, when selecting a server which realizes the fastest communication speed from the server group,
This is realized using the server information and the data of the data file to be acquired when measuring the communication speed.

Further, the client terminal device according to the present invention determines one server using a data file to be downloaded during a server selection period, and then uses a data acquisition period from the data file of the selected server. To download data to the download data storage unit.

In the present invention, the server information storage section of the client terminal device is configured to be set from a server information input section of the client terminal device instead of receiving server information from the server group. Can be.

According to the present invention, a client terminal device accesses a server group including a plurality of servers via the Internet and, upon selecting the fastest server, starts downloading and then receives information on the server group. A receiving step, a measuring step of receiving a target data file for a certain period of time and measuring the transfer amount of each server, a determining step of checking all acquired server information, and a transfer step of each server measured in the measuring step. A selection connection step of selecting and connecting to a server having a maximum transfer amount, and a transfer speed reduction determining step of determining a decrease in transfer speed and returning to the determination step to check server information again if the transfer speed has decreased. When there is no decrease in the transfer speed decrease judging step Is a data receiving step of receiving the data file, and determines whether or not the download is completed after the reception of the data. If the download is completed, it is considered that the download is completed. And a download end determination step that returns to the drop determination step and repeats.

Further, the receiving step of receiving the information of the server group in the present invention can be replaced with an obtaining step of obtaining server information that can be set by the client terminal device.

[0018]

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a server selection system for explaining an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, in the present embodiment, a selective connection between a server and a client is performed.
In automatically selecting the optimal server from the viewpoint, the communication speed is measured using the received data, and the server is automatically switched when a decrease in the communication speed is detected during data reception.

For this purpose, first, via the Internet 6,
The client 7 connected to the server group 5 including the third to third servers 1 to 3 is a server information storage unit 8 written from the server information 4 provided in the second server 2.
A server selection and communication speed monitoring program 9 for selecting a server based on the server information stored in the server information storage unit 8 and monitoring the communication speed.
And the data files 20A to 20 of the connected server
And a download data storage unit 10 for storing data downloaded from C.

On the other hand, the server group 5 includes first to third servers 1 to 3 having data files 20A to 20C having the same contents.
When the client 7 accesses through the Internet 6, all the server information 4 provided by the server group 5 is transferred from the second server 2, which is the main server group 5. Therefore, the client 7 can obtain all the server information 4 of the server group 5 by taking the transferred server information 4 into the server information storage unit 8.

Further, as described above, the server selection and communication speed monitoring program 9 selects an optimum server for the processing data based on the server information 4 stored in the server information storage unit 8, and also downloads the data during the download. Monitors the communication speed at.

That is, the client 7 first loads the server information 4 of the server 2 into the server information storage unit 8. Then, the server information 4 fetched into the server information storage unit 8 and the server selection and communication speed monitoring program 9 are used to transfer a large amount of data via the Internet 6 via the Internet 6.
One server, for example, server 1 is determined. Thereafter, the data in the data file 20A of the selected server 1 is downloaded to the download data storage unit 10 using the Internet 6 and the server selection and communication speed monitoring program 9. Further, when downloading, when the transfer amount of the server 1 decreases, the server having the largest transfer amount among the servers 1 to 3 is measured. When that server, for example, the server 3 is found, the data transfer of the server 1 is measured. In the middle, the connection partner of the client 7 is switched from the server 1 to the server 3.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating the procedure for downloading server information in FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, in selecting a server and monitoring the communication speed, first, when data download is started in a download start step A1, server information 4 is received from the server in a set server information acquisition step A2. I do.

At this time, in the transfer amount measuring step A4, a part of the target data is downloaded from the first to third servers 1 to 3 for a certain period of time based on the stored server information 4 to thereby increase the communication speed. Is measured, and the transfer amount at that time is stored in the download data storage unit 10.
In the acquisition server information determination step A3, the remaining data is downloaded to all the servers indicated in the server information 4 based on the result of the measurement of the communication speed.

Next, in the selection connection step A5 of the maximum transfer amount server, an optimum server is selected.

Further, if the communication speed is reduced in the transfer speed reduction determining step A6 after the selection of the optimum server, the flow returns to the above-described step A3, and the communication speed is measured again to determine the optimum server. Reselect.

If the transfer speed does not decrease, the data is received in the data receiving step A7 and the process proceeds to the download end step A9 via the download end determining step A8, or the transfer speed lowering judgment is made again. It returns to step A6.

As described above, in the present embodiment, there is no need to select a server to communicate with manually or to select a server based on the past communication speed as in the related art. Since the server having the largest transfer amount can be measured in real time, the communication time can be reduced.

FIG. 3 is a timing chart for explaining the operation of acquiring data from the server in FIG. As shown in FIG. 3, when acquiring data from each of the first, second, and third servers 1, 2, and 3, the server information 4 includes first, second, and third servers 1-3. It is registered in the order of. Based on the server information 4, data is acquired from the first server 1 for a predetermined time from the beginning of the download target data A. Next, the second server 2 becomes the first server 1
Obtains data for a certain period of time from where it was obtained. Finally, the third server 3 acquires data for a certain period of time from the location acquired by the second server 2.

As a result, when comparing the data transfer amount acquired in a certain time during the server selection period, the transfer amount of the second server 2 is large, so that the second server 2 is selected as the optimum server. Also, in the data acquisition period 1, the communication speed is measured even when the second server 2 is acquiring data, and when the transfer amount is reduced, the server measurement period for measuring the transfer amount for each server again is performed. 2
Is provided. In the server measurement period 2, since the transfer amount of the first server 1 is large, the first server 1 is selected as the optimal server, and the data is acquired from the first server 1 in the data transfer period 2; Measurement period 1,
Even in the case of 2, the target data is continuously downloaded while measuring to reduce the transfer time.

According to the above-described embodiment, when a client accesses a specific server and downloads data, a server group is formed with the specific server and a plurality of other servers having the same data. Therefore, by storing the server information in the server information storage unit of the client, the client can sequentially access a plurality of servers based on the server information, and can select an optimum server.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a server selection system for explaining another embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 4, the client 7 in the present embodiment is connected to a server group 5 including first to third servers 1 to 3 via the Internet 6, and the second server 2 transmits the server information 4. This is similar to the above-described embodiment. The client 7 according to the present embodiment also includes a server information storage unit 8, a server selection and communication speed monitoring program 9, and a download data storage unit 10. The server information storage unit 8 is provided in the second server 2. Instead of being written from the provided server information 4, a server information input unit 11 for the client 7 is provided, and the server information is directly input from here.

As described above, by providing server information to the server information storage unit 8 on the client side, even when the server group 5 having no server information 4 is accessed, the optimum server is selected. Can be connected. That is, if the client 7 sets server data in the server information storage unit 8 from the server information input unit 11 in advance, when the target server group 5 is accessed, regardless of the presence or absence of the server information 4 in the servers 1 to 3, Server 1 to 3 can be selected.

In short, by using the server information input unit 11 of the server information storage unit 8 set by the client 7, it is possible to cope with a situation where the server group 5 does not have the server information 4. .

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the procedure for downloading server information in FIG. As shown in FIG. 5, in the server information download procedure in this case, the steps other than the server group information receiving step A2 in the flow of FIG. 2 described above are exactly the same. In the present embodiment, instead of the step A2 of receiving the server information 4 of the second server 2, a server information obtaining step A10 of the client setting is executed, whereby an optimal server is selected.
That is, the data set by the client 7 is used instead of receiving the server information 4.

Next, a description will be given of an operation when a plurality of data to be downloaded are collectively obtained by using a data sequence.

FIG. 6 is a timing chart for explaining the operation of acquiring the server information already set in FIG. As shown in FIG. 6, here, there are four download target files B, C, D, and E. Among them, the download target file B is a file having a smaller capacity than the other files C, D, and E. File B to be used as the measurement file
Server 1 to server 3 is selected. This is the server selection period 1. Note that files B, C,
D and E are the data files 20A to 20C of FIG.
And each of the servers 1 to 3 includes a plurality of data files 20A to 20C.

In the case of FIG. 6, the client 7 selects the second server 2 and obtains the download target file C from the second server 2, but the communication speed is reduced during this period. At this time, a server selection process is performed using the download target file B. This is the server selection period 2.

As a result of the selection, the first server 1 is selected, and the rest of the download target file C is obtained. Subsequently, the download target file D is acquired. If the communication speed is again reduced, the server selection processing is performed again. This is the server selection period 3.

Next, as a result of the selection, when the second server 2 is selected again, the remaining download target file D and the download target file E are obtained. After obtaining the download target file E, the remaining of the download target file B is obtained. This is the remaining data acquisition period.

Although the acquisition of all files is completed as described above, even in the case where the download is performed collectively by such a method, the transfer amount for each download target file can be reduced by using the measurement file as the download target file. There is no need to measure, and the overall communication time can be reduced.

[0043]

As described above, the server selection method in the network according to the present invention does not need to be manually selected by judging the selection of the server based on the data transfer amount and performing it in real time. There is an effect that a server having a higher transfer speed can be selected than selecting data.

Further, according to the present invention, there is no need to keep a record of the past communication, so that there is an effect that a burden is not imposed on the client machine.

Further, the present invention has an effect that even if there are servers that are accessed for the first time or servers that are not frequently accessed, an optimum server can be selected at the time of access.

Further, according to the present invention, even when the communication speed is reduced during the communication, the communication speed is measured again and the most optimal server is selected. There is an effect that the influence of the decrease can be suppressed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a server selection system for explaining an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure for downloading server information in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a timing chart illustrating an operation of acquiring data from a server in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of a server selection system for explaining another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure for downloading server information in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a timing chart illustrating an operation of acquiring set server information in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram of a server selection system for explaining an example of the related art.

[Explanation of symbols]

1-3 server 4 server information 5 server group 6 Internet 7 client terminal device 8 server information storage unit 9 server selection and communication speed monitoring program 10 download data storage unit 11 server information input unit 20A-20C data file A1 download start step A2 setting Acquired server information acquisition step A3 Acquisition server information judgment step A4 Transfer amount measurement step A5 Maximum transfer amount server selection connection step A6 Transfer speed decrease judgment step A7 Data reception step A8 Download end judgment step A9 Download end step A10 Client information server setting Acquisition step

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 5B045 GG02 JJ02 5B089 GA21 GB02 HA10 JB16 KA05 KC22 KC23 KC47 KC59 KG05 5K030 HB19 HC01 JA10 LB08 MB04 5K034 EE11 HH01 HH02 JJ11 MM08 9A001 CC07 DD10

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A server group comprising a plurality of servers each having the same data file,
In a server selection method in a network in which a client terminal device is connected to the server group via the Internet and selects one server of the server group, the client terminal device is owned by one server of the server group. A server information storage unit for receiving and storing server information to be stored, a server monitoring and communication speed monitoring program for checking the server information received in the server information storage unit and monitoring the communication speed of each server; A download data storage unit that stores data downloaded from the data file of the one server based on a server monitoring and communication speed monitoring program, and selects a server that realizes the fastest communication speed among the server group. Along with the data transfer Communication when the speed is decreased, the server selection method in a network, characterized in that the communication speed of each server is measured again, communicates by switching the fastest server during. 2. In selecting a server that realizes the fastest communication speed from the server group, the server information and data of the data file to be acquired when the communication speed is measured are used. Item 1. A method for selecting a server in a network according to Item 1. 3. The client terminal device determines one server using a data file to be downloaded during a server selection period, and then uses the data acquisition period from the data file of the selected server to perform the download. 2. The server selection method in a network according to claim 1, wherein the data is acquired in the data storage unit. 4. The server in the network according to claim 1, wherein the server information storage unit of the client terminal device is set from a server information input unit of the client terminal device instead of receiving server information from the server group. Selection method. 5. A receiving step of accessing a server group including a plurality of servers from a client terminal device via the Internet and selecting the fastest server, starting downloading and receiving information on the server group. A measurement step of receiving the target data file for a certain period of time and measuring the transfer amount of each server; a determining step of checking all the acquired server information; and a maximum transfer amount of the transfer amount of each server measured in the measurement step. A selection connection step of selecting and connecting a server having an amount of data, a transfer speed reduction determining step of determining a decrease in transfer speed, and if the transfer speed has decreased, returning to the determination step and rechecking server information; If there is no decrease in the decrease judgment step, the data A data receiving step of receiving a file, and determining whether or not the download has been completed after the reception of the data. If the download has been completed, the download is considered to be completed. A method of selecting a server in a network, comprising: a download end determining step of returning and repeating. 6. The server selection method in a network according to claim 5, wherein the receiving step of receiving the information of the server group is replaced with an obtaining step of obtaining server information that can be set by the client terminal device.