GLOBAL LOAD BASED FILE ALLOCATION AMONG A PLURALITY OF GEOGRAPHICALLY DISTRIBUTED STORAGE NODES

摘要

A method for balancing loads on a plurality of geographically distributed storage nodes coupled to a communications network, includes: receiving a request from a user device to download a data file; identifying all storage nodes from a plurality of geographically distributed storage nodes containing the requested data file; selecting a first storage node containing the requested file to serve the request; and determining if the first storage node is too busy, wherein if the first storage node is determined not to be too busy, directing the request to the first storage node, otherwise searching for a second storage node containing the requested data file that is not too busy and, if the second storage node is found, directing the request to the second storage node.