JPH04114250A - Server deciding system for local area network - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To uniformly keep the loads of respective server terminals by deciding a terminal having the smallest load, among terminals returning server response messages, as a server to the service by a cliant requesting the service. CONSTITUTION:Cliant terminals 1-3 simultaneously broadcast and transmit server request messages 7, and plural terminals 4-6 receiving these server request messages respectively return server response messages 8-10 including the own loading information at present. In this case, the cliant terminals 1-3 control the load information of the plural server response messages 8-10 and decide the terminal having the smallest load as the server concerning the service. Thus, even when the plural server terminals exist in a system, the loads of the respective server terminals 5-6 are equally kept.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a server determination method in a local area network for determining a server terminal to be used by a client terminal in the local area network.

[Conventional technology]

In conventional local area network systems, a client terminal selects the terminal that returns the server response message earliest as its own server terminal.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In the conventional server determination method for local area networks described above, the terminal that returned the server response message earliest was determined to be the server terminal, so when there are multiple server terminals in the system, the load on each server terminal is The disadvantage is that the numbers are not equal.

[Means to solve the problem]

In the server determination method in a local area network of the present invention, in the server determination method in a local area network having a plurality of terminals, a client terminal simultaneously broadcasts a server request message, and a plurality of terminals that have received the server request message each returns a server response message containing current load information of the client terminal, and the client terminal examines the load information of the plurality of server response messages and determines the terminal with the smallest load as the server for the service. shall be.

〔Example〕

Next, the present invention will be explained with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the format of the server request message in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the format of the server response message in FIG. , FIG. 4 is a processing flow diagram showing an example of the operation in FIG. 1.

Three client terminals (hereinafter referred to as CLT) 1,2゜3 and three server terminals (hereinafter referred to as 5VT) 4.56 are connected to the local area network of this example. In this example, 5VT4 to 6 are connected. It is assumed that the servers are FAX servers, and a facsimile adapter device is connected to each of them. Note that the addresses of CLT1, 2, 3, and 5VT4.5.6 are OIH, 02H, 03H, and 04H, respectively.

05H, 06H.

Figure 3 (a), (b) and (c) are 5VT4 and 5 respectively.
．． 6, the message type 02H indicates a server response message,
Each server response message stores load information (in this example, the number of remaining messages to be transmitted is 10H, 5H7H). Message type 01H in FIG. 2 indicates a server request message.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained with reference to FIG. 4.

When it becomes necessary to fax a document from CLTI,
The CLTI broadcasts the server request message 7 in the format shown in FIG. Figure 3 (a), (b)
), the server response message 8゜9.10 in the format shown in (c) is returned (step 2>, CLTI waits for a certain period of time and then returns the server response message 8゜9.10).
In step 3), the load information field of the server response message is examined, and among the SVTs that have returned the server response message, the 5VT5 with the least remaining number of pages to be sent is determined as the server for fax transmission of the document. (Step 4).

However, although CLTI uses 5VT5 as a server to send the current document by FAX, the FAX of the next document is
When sending an AX, send a server request message (step 1)
), so the same SVT is not necessarily used as the server.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, in the server determination method in a local area network of the present invention, a client terminal requesting a service determines the terminal with the least load among the terminals that have returned server response messages as the server for that service. This has the effect of keeping the load on the server terminals uniform.

In addition, since the server terminal used by one client terminal can be dynamically changed for each service, it is possible to limit the number of servers used by one client terminal to one specific server, such as a printer server or a fax server. This has the effect that the client terminal can use the terminal with the quickest service response as the server if it is not necessary.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a system block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention;
2 is a diagram showing an example of the format of the server request message in FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the format of the server response message in FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 is a process showing an example of the operation in FIG. 1. It is a flow diagram. 1, 2.3...Client terminal (CLT) 4.5.
6... Server terminal (SVT) = 7... Server request message, 8,9.10... Server response message.

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a server determination method in a local area network having multiple terminals, client terminals simultaneously broadcast a server request message, and the multiple terminals that received this server request message send a server response message containing their current load information. , and the client terminal examines load information of a plurality of the server response messages and determines the terminal with the smallest load as the server for the service.