Lawrence J Hess

US Patent:

20030037149, Feb 20, 2003

Filed:

Aug 6, 2002

Appl. No.:

10/212086

Inventors:

Lawrence Hess - Northridge CA, US

International Classification:

G06F015/173

US Classification:

709/227000, 709/239000

Abstract:

A distributed and fault tolerant server system and method that includes a plurality of modules networked together. A Log-In Module receives a request from a user to log onto the system and searches clusters of nodes in at least an Online Database, and perhaps other modules, to determine which of the nodes has the fewest number of records. The node with the fewest number of records is selected to act on behalf of the user. To achieve fault tolerance and redundancy, each node is paired with a sister node and each node in the pair mirrors its contents to its sister, whereby when one of the sisters fails, the other can immediately take over the functionality of the failed sister. In a preferred embodiment, the system and method is implemented using a Unix-based system such as Linux and is designed to operate massively multiplayer (MMP) online games.