US Patent 7676561 Method and apparatus for adaptive load balancing

Determining server capabilities during a discrete time period, or interval, allows for more efficient processing of client requests. Updating a proportional server capability load balancing information encoding at intervals allows a load balancer to handle client requests without the overhead of determining current server capabilities. Decision-making can be reduced to quick selection of one of a group of servers without considering the server's capability, since the server's capability has previously been considered when collecting the load balancing information.