A process developed by IBM in which client requests over the Internet can be routed to the cell that is geographically closest. When one or more mirror sites exists, ping triangulation uses a process called echo location. When a server receives a client request, it sends out an ICMP echo, or ping, packet across the Internet to the mirror sites and times the echo response. From this information, the most appropriate site to respond to the client request is determined. Basically, ping triangulation maps in multidimensional space the location of every mirror site and the end-user, sending that user not only to an open server but to the closest open server.
