ALLOCATING TASKS BY SENDING TASK-AVAILABLE MESSAGES REQUESTING ASSISTANCE WITH AN IMAGE PROCESSING TASK FROM A SERVER WITH A HEAVY TASK LOAD TO ALL OTHER SERVERS CONNECTED TO THE COMPUTER NETWORK

摘要

A plurality of server computers connected to computer network processes tasks that are unequally distributed among the server computers. A server sends a task-available message over the computer network to the remaining server computers to request assistance. The received task-available message is processed by some of the servers while others of the servers do not process the message because they are too busy. The servers that process the message respond by requesting a task from the message sending server.