Dynamic replication of web servers using rent-a-servers

Abstract

Some popular web sites are attracting large number of users and becoming hot spots in the Internet. Not only their servers are over-loaded but also they create excessive traffic on the Internet. Many of these hot spots are appearing and disappearing rapidly. Traditional approaches such as web caching and static replication of web servers are not proper solutions to the hot spot problem. We present a dynamic replication method of web servers using a concept called rent-a-servers. The proposed method not only distributes web requests among replicated web servers evenly but also significantly reduces traffic on the Internet. We compare the proposed method with other approaches and show the effectiveness of the proposed method through simulation. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.