Method and apparatus for network caching and load balancing
First Claim
Patent Images
1. An apparatus comprising:
- a network interface to receive network traffic adhering to a network protocol from a data network based on a first request;
a network address translator, coupled to the network interface, to identify network session information within the received network traffic adhering to said network protocol; and
a controller, coupled to the network address translator, to select network traffic to be cached and to be routed for load balancing based, at least in part, on the network session information identified by the network address translator, wherein said controller forwards the same cached network traffic to a plurality of different clients in response to a plurality of requests.
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Abstract
An apparatus comprising a network interface coupled to a data network, a network address translator and a controller. The network interface may receive network traffic from the communicatively coupled data network adhering to any of a number of alternative network protocols. The network address translator identifies network session information within the received network traffic adhering to any of a number of alternative protocols. The controller selects network traffic to be cached based, at least in part, on the network session information identified by the network address translator.
124 Citations
23 Claims
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1. An apparatus comprising:
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a network interface to receive network traffic adhering to a network protocol from a data network based on a first request;
a network address translator, coupled to the network interface, to identify network session information within the received network traffic adhering to said network protocol; and
a controller, coupled to the network address translator, to select network traffic to be cached and to be routed for load balancing based, at least in part, on the network session information identified by the network address translator, wherein said controller forwards the same cached network traffic to a plurality of different clients in response to a plurality of requests. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. An apparatus comprising:
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a network interface, communicatively coupled to a data network, to receive network traffic based on a first request;
a storage device having stored therein a plurality of programming instructions; and
an execution unit, coupled to the network interface and the storage device, to execute the plurality of programming instructions to provide network management services, including a network cache service employing network address translation to analyze received network traffic adhering to a network protocol to select network traffic to be cached and to forward the same cached network traffic to a plurality of different clients in response to a plurality or requests, and to select network traffic to be routed for load balancing. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. An apparatus comprising:
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a network interface to receive network traffic adhering to a network protocol from a data network, the network traffic having network session information identified by a network address translator; and
a controller, coupled to the network address translator, to route the received network traffic for load balancing and caching of the received network traffic in accordance with a network management strategy based, at least in part, on the network session information identified by the network address translator, wherein said controller forwards the same cached network traffic to a plurality of different clients in response to a plurality of requests. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A method for network caching, the method comprising:
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(a) receiving network traffic corresponding to a network protocol from a data network;
(b) analyzing the network traffic to identify network session information; and
(c) determining whether the network traffic is to be cached and whether to route the traffic for load balancing in accordance with a network management protocol based, at least in part, on the identified network session information of the network traffic; and
(d) transmitting the same cached network traffic to a plurality of different clients requesting said cached network traffic. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21)
(d) identifying an appropriate networking data path for network traffic not selected to be cached based, at least in pan, on the identified network session information of the network traffic.
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21. The method of claim 19, wherein the network session information is Open System Interconnection (OSI) layer 5 information.
- 22. A storage medium having stored therein a plurality of instructions which, when executed by an execution unit, causes the execution unit to implement network management services including a network caching service employing network address translation to analyze received network traffic adhering to any of a plurality of alternative data network protocols to identify network session information, wherein the network caching service selects network traffic to cache based, at least in part, on the identified network session information in accordance with a network management strategy and forwards the same cached network traffic to a plurality of different clients, said instructions further provide a load balancing service employing network address translation to identify network session information in network traffic received from a communicatively coupled data network, wherein the load balancing service beneficially routes the network traffic to its destination based, at least in part, on the identified network session information.
Specification