DISTRIBUTED LOAD BALANCER

• US 20100036903A1
• Filed: 08/11/2008
• Published: 02/11/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/11/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Ahmad, Najam, Vaid, Kushagra V., Greenberg, Albert Gordon, Lahiri, Parantap, Sengupta, Sudipta, Maltz, Dave, Patel, Parveen K.
• Application Number:
  US12/189,438
• Publication Number:
  US 20100036903A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/202
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/505 considering the load
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers

Abstract

Systems and methods that distribute load balancing functionalities in a data center. A network of demultiplexers and load balancer servers enable a calculated scaling and growth operation, wherein capacity of load balancing operation can be adjusted by changing the number of load balancer servers. Accordingly, load balancing functionality/design can be disaggregated to increase resilience and flexibility for both the load balancing and switching mechanisms of the data center.

Claims

1. A computer implemented system comprising the following computer executable components:

a demultiplexer component(s) that interfaces load balancer server(s) with a switching system of a data center; and

the load balancer server(s) distributes requests received by the data center among a plurality of request servicing servers.

2. The computer implemented system of claim 1 further comprising a top-of-rack (TOR) switch that includes the demultiplexer.

3. The computer implemented system of claim 1, where the demultiplexer is part of a switch or a router.

4. The computer implemented system of claim 1, the demultiplexer further comprising a mapping component that employs a routing function to direct a request to the load balancer server.

5. The computer implemented system of claim 1, the demultiplexer and the load balancer servers are associated with an L2, L3, or L4 network or a combination thereof.

6. The computer implemented system of claim 1, the load balancer server is selected from a group of a laptop, personal computer or a commodity machine not tailored for load balancing functionalities.

7. The computer implemented system of claim 4, the routing function implements media access control (MAC) rotation with an IP address designatable to a plurality of MAC addresses.

8. The computer implemented system of claim 1 further comprising an artificial intelligence component that facilitates load balancing as part of a distributed system.

9. A computer implemented method comprising the following computer executable acts:

distributing load balancing functionality within a data center via a demultiplexer(s) and load balancer servers; and

directing an incoming request received to the load balancer servers via the demultiplexer.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 9 further comprising adjusting number of load balancer servers to accommodate incoming requests.

11. The computer implemented method of claim 9 further comprising employing commodity computers as part of load balancer servers to execute work load distribution algorithms in software code.

12. The computer implemented method of claim 9 further comprising distributing tasks among request servicing servers by the load balancer server.

13. The computer implemented method of claim 9 further comprising assignment of request to request servicing servers based on environmental factors.

14. The computer implemented method of claim 9 further comprising implementing load balancing functionalities as part of a switch, a router, or top-of-rack (TOR) switches, or a combination thereof.

15. The computer implemented method of claim 14 further comprising assigning VIP identity to a TOR switch(es).

16. The computer implemented method of claim 9 further comprising examining data streams by the demultiplexer to identify data flows.

17. The computer implemented method of claim 9, the directing act is performed in an intelligent manner that is network path aware and service aware.

18. The computer implemented method of claim 17 further comprising employing at least one of a tunneling from the demultiplexer to the load balancer servers and tunneling from the load balancing servers to the request servicing servers.

19. The computer implemented method of claim 9 further comprising the load balancing servers offloading functionality from the request servicing servers.

20. A computer implemented system comprising the following computer executable components:

means for interfacing a switching system of a data center with a distributed load balancer system; and

means for distributing requests received by the data center among a plurality of request servicing servers.