Using smart clients to build scalable services

Individual machines are no longer sufficient to handle offered load to many Internet sites. To use multiple machines for scalable performance, issues involving load balancing, fault tolerance, and backward compatibility with URL naming must be addressed . A number of server-side approaches have been developed to provide this level of transparent access to Internet services, including HTTP redirect, DNS aliasing, Magic Routers, and Active Networks. In this paper, we will argue that in many instances, a client-side approach to providing transparent access to Internet services provides increased flexibility and performance. We describe the design and implementation of Smart Clients and show how our system can be used to provide a transparently scalable and highly available interface to three network services: telnet, ftp, and an Internet chat application. 1 Introduction The explosive growth of the World Wide Web is straining the architecture of many Internet sites. Slow response times, ...