Method and system for efficiently disbursing requests among a tiered hierarchy of service providers

摘要

A system and method for dispatching computer system service requests to multiple service providers in a tiered-parallel fashion such that a request can be satisfied in the shortest time possible by the computer, or module, most available to provide valid responses is described. The method is designed to permit a hierarchal ordering, by tiers, of preferred service providers, where the dispatches are performed in parallel as to providers on the same tier and in serial as to providers on subsequent tiers. This invention improves the speed and reliability of response to service requests for data, or objects, across a computer system network with one or more computer processing units.