System and method for optimizing sessions and network resources in a loadbalancing environment

• US 7,340,744 B2
• Filed: 04/08/2005
• Issued: 03/04/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: O'Rourke, Chris, Chandwadkar, Ashish A.
• Primary Examiner(s): An; Meng-Al T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Truong; Camquy
• Application Number:
  US11/102,416
• Publication Number:
  US 20060227705A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,061 Days
• Field of Search: 718/105, 709/226, 709/206
• US Class Current: 718/105
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1027 Persistence of sessions during load balancing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/143 Termination or inactivation of sessions, e.g. event-controlled end of session
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/146 Markers for unambiguous identification of a particular session, e.g. session cookie or URL-encoding
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/088 among core entities

Abstract

A method for loadbalancing in a network environment is provided that includes receiving a create request from an end user for a communications link provided by a network node and communicating a response to the end user in order to establish a communication session. The method further includes identifying a selected one of a plurality of network nodes to facilitate the communication session. The identification of the selected network node is achieved through binding of a session identifier associated with the end user to the selected network node.

Claims

1. An apparatus for loadbalancing in a network environment, comprising:

a loadbalancer operable to receive a create request from an end user for a communications link provided by a network node and to communicate a response to the end user in order to establish a communication session, the loadbalancer identifying a selected one of a plurality of network nodes to facilitate the communication session, wherein the identification of the selected network node is achieved through binding of a session identifier associated with the end user to the selected network node, whereby a subsequent create request is received and correlated to the session identifier in order to forward the subsequent create request to the same selected network node, feedback information being received from the selected network node, which allows resources associated with the end user to be cleaned up, and wherein multiple flows are tracked for the end user such that when a server terminates one of the multiple flows, an explicit message is received and the tracking is updated;

wherein the loadbalancer is further operable to bind the session identifier associated with the end user to multiple flows associated with the end user; and

wherein the binding is accomplished by parsing a GPRS tunneling protocol (GTP) control stream and building a persistent sticky object that can be accessed by the loadbalancer.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the binding is executed based on information present in an access protocol being employed by the end user.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the loadbalancer includes a table operable to store the sticky object.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the session identifier comprises either an international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) or a mobile subscriber ISDN number (MSISDN).

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the network nodes comprise either gateway GPRS support nodes (GGSNs) or network access servers (NASs).

6. A method for loadbalancing in a network environment, comprising:

receiving a create request from an end user for a communications link provided by a network node;

communicating a response to the end user in order to establish a communication session; and

identifying a selected one of a plurality of network nodes to facilitate the communication session, wherein the identification of the selected network node is achieved through binding of a session identifier associated with the end user to the selected network node, whereby a subsequent create request is received and correlated to the session identifier in order to forward the subsequent create request to the same selected network node, feedback information being received from the selected network node, which allows resources associated with the end user to be cleaned up, and wherein multiple flows are tracked for the end user such that when a server terminates one of the multiple flows, an explicit message is received and the tracking is updated;

wherein the loadbalancer is further operable to bind the session identifier associated with the end user to multiple flows associated with the end user; and

wherein the binding is accomplished by parsing a GPRS tunneling protocol (GTP) control stream and building a persistent sticky object that can be accessed by the loadbalancer.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the binding is executed based on information present in an access protocol being employed by the end user.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

accessing a table operable to store the sticky object.

9. A system for loadbalancing in a network environment, comprising:

means for receiving a create request from an end user for a communications link provided by a network node;

means for communicating a response to the end user in order to establish a communication session; and

means for identifying a selected one of a plurality of network nodes to facilitate the communication session, wherein the identification of the selected network node is achieved through binding of a session identifier associated with the end user to the selected network node, whereby a subsequent create request is received and correlated to the session identifier in order to forward the subsequent create request to the same selected network node, feedback information being received from the selected network node, which allows resources associated with the end user to be cleaned up, and wherein multiple flows are tracked for the end user such that when a server terminates one of the multiple flows, an explicit message is received and the tracking is updated;

means for binding the session identifier associated with the end user to multiple flows associated with the end user;

wherein the binding is accomplished by parsing a GPRS tunneling protocol (GTP) control stream and building a persistent sticky object that can be accessed by the loadbalancer.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the binding is executed based on information present in an access protocol being employed by the end user.

11. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

means for accessing a table operable to store the sticky object.

12. Software for loadbalancing in a network environment, the software being embodied in a computer readable medium and including code operable to:

receive a create request from an end user for a communications link provided by a network node;

communicate a response to the end user in order to establish a communication session; and

identify a selected one of a plurality of network nodes to facilitate the communication session, wherein the identification of the selected network node is achieved through binding of a session identifier associated with the end user to the selected network node, whereby a subsequent create request is received and correlated to the session identifier in order to forward the subsequent create request to the same selected network node, feedback information being received from the selected network node, which allows resources associated with the end user to be cleaned up, and wherein multiple flows are tracked for the end user such that when a server terminates one of the multiple flows, an explicit message is received and the tracking is updated;

wherein the code is further operable to bind the session identifier associated with the end user to multiple flows associated with the end user; and

wherein the binding is accomplished by parsing a GPRS tunneling protocol (GTP) control stream and building a persistent sticky object that can be accessed by the loadbalancer.

13. The medium of claim 12, wherein the binding is executed based on information present in an access protocol being employed by the end user.

14. The medium of claim 12, wherein the code is further operable to:

access a table operable to store the sticky object.