Distributing and balancing traffic flow in a virtual gateway
First Claim
1. A method of controlling the distribution of traffic flow in a load-sharing redundancy group comprising a set of gateway devices including a first gateway device and a second gateway device which forward packets sent from hosts, the method comprising:
- assigning a first plurality of forwarding addresses to the first gateway device;
assigning a second plurality of forwarding addresses to the second gateway device;
measuring the traffic flow for each of the assigned forwarding addresses; and
adjusting the traffic flow by changing allocation of the forwarding addresses based upon the measured traffic flow;
wherein the load-sharing redundancy group provides failover services in the event that one of the gateway devices ceases operation;
wherein the first gateway device actively forwards packets addressed to the first plurality of forwarding addresses and the second gateway device actively forwards packets addressed to the second plurality of forwarding addresses.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The distribution of traffic flows in a load-sharing redundancy group that includes a first gateway device and a second gateway device includes assigning a first set of forwarding addresses to the first gateway device and a second set of forwarding addresses to the second gateway device. The redundancy group distributes forwarding addresses to hosts which in turn use the distributed forwarding addresses to send packets to the redundancy group. The traffic flow for each of the assigned forwarding addresses is measured and may be compared to a target traffic flow. The traffic flow is adjusted to close in on the target traffic flow. Adjustment of the traffic flow can be accomplished either by changing the existing measured traffic flow by re-assigning a forwarding address originally assigned to one gateway device to a different gateway device or by altering future distribution of forwarding addresses so that additional traffic is sent to one or more forwarding addresses having lower measured traffic. The gateway devices can be routers using virtual Media Access Control (MAC) addresses as forwarding addresses. The redundancy group may also be configured to provide failover services in the event that one of the gateway devices ceases operation.
238 Citations
49 Claims
-
1. A method of controlling the distribution of traffic flow in a load-sharing redundancy group comprising a set of gateway devices including a first gateway device and a second gateway device which forward packets sent from hosts, the method comprising:
-
assigning a first plurality of forwarding addresses to the first gateway device; assigning a second plurality of forwarding addresses to the second gateway device; measuring the traffic flow for each of the assigned forwarding addresses; and adjusting the traffic flow by changing allocation of the forwarding addresses based upon the measured traffic flow; wherein the load-sharing redundancy group provides failover services in the event that one of the gateway devices ceases operation; wherein the first gateway device actively forwards packets addressed to the first plurality of forwarding addresses and the second gateway device actively forwards packets addressed to the second plurality of forwarding addresses. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
-
-
15. A method of controlling traffic flow in a load-sharing redundancy group comprising a set of gateway devices including a first gateway device and a second gateway device which forward packets sent from hosts, the method comprising:
-
assigning a first address set to the first gateway device, wherein the first address set comprises a plurality of forwarding addresses, further wherein the first gateway device operates as a first active gateway to forward packets sent by hosts and addressed to forwarding addresses in the first address set; assigning a second address set to the second gateway device, wherein the second address set comprises a plurality forwarding addresses, further wherein the second gateway device operates as a second active gateway to forward packets sent by hosts and addressed to forwarding addresses in the second address set; measuring the traffic flow to each forwarding address; adjusting the measured traffic flow by changing allocation of the forwarding addresses based upon the measured traffic flow; wherein the load-sharing redundancy group provides failover services in the event that one of the gateway devices ceases operation. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
-
-
23. A computer readable medium encoded with instructions executable by a computer, the instructions specifying a method of controlling traffic flow in a load-sharing redundancy group comprising a set of gateway devices including a first gateway device and a second gateway device which forward packets from hosts, the method comprising:
-
assigning a first plurality of forwarding addresses to the first gateway device, further wherein the first gateway device forwards packets sent by hosts and addressed to the first plurality of forwarding addresses; assigning a second plurality of forwarding addresses to the second gateway device, further wherein the second gateway device forwards packets sent by hosts and addressed to the second plurality of forwarding addresses; measuring the traffic flow for each of the assigned forwarding addresses; and adjusting the traffic flow by changing allocation of the forwarding addresses based upon the measured traffic flow; wherein the load-sharing redundancy group provides failover services in the event that one of the gateway devices ceases operation; wherein the first gateway device actively forwards packets and the second gateway device actively forwards packets simultaneously with the first gateway device. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
-
-
31. An apparatus for controlling traffic flow in a load-sharing redundancy group comprising a set of gateway devices including a first gateway device and a second gateway device which forward packets sent from hosts, the apparatus comprising:
-
means for assigning a first plurality of forwarding addresses to the first gateway device, further wherein the first gateway device forwards packets sent by hosts and addressed to the first plurality of forwarding addresses; means for assigning a second plurality of forwarding addresses to the second gateway device, further wherein the second gateway device forwards packets sent by hosts and addressed to the second plurality of forwarding addresses; means for measuring the traffic flow for each of the assigned forwarding addresses; and means for adjusting the traffic flow by changing allocation of the forwarding addresses based upon the measured traffic flow; wherein the load-sharing redundancy group provides failover services in the event that one of the gateway devices ceases operation, wherein the first gateway device actively forwards packets simultaneously with the second gateway device, and the second gateway device actively forwards packets simultaneously with the first gateway device. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35)
-
-
36. A primary gateway device controlling traffic flow in a load-sharing redundancy group comprising a set of gateway devices including the primary gateway device and a second gateway device which forward packets sent from hosts, the primary gateway device comprising:
-
one or more processors; a memory in communication with at least one of the processors, wherein at least one of the processors and the memory; assign a first plurality of forwarding addresses to the primary gateway device, further wherein the primary gateway device forwards packets sent by hosts and addressed to the first plurality of forwarding addresses; assign a second plurality of forwarding addresses to the second gateway device, further wherein the second gateway device forwards packets sent by hosts and addressed to the second plurality of forwarding addresses; measure the traffic flow for each of the assigned forwarding addresses in the primary gateway device and the second gateway device; and adjust the traffic flow by changing allocation of the forwarding addresses; wherein the load-sharing redundancy group provides failover services in the event that one of the gateway devices ceases operation; wherein the first gateway device actively forwards packets simultaneously with the second gateway device, and the second gateway device actively forwards packets simultaneously with the first gateway device. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44)
-
-
45. A primary gateway device controlling traffic flow in a load-sharing redundancy group comprising a set of gateway devices including the primary gateway device and a second gateway device which forward packets sent from hosts, the gateway device comprising:
-
one or more processors; a memory in communication with at least one of the processors, wherein at least one of the processors and the memory; assign a first address set to the primary gateway device, wherein the first address set comprises a plurality of forwarding addresses, further wherein the primary gateway device forwards packets sent by hosts and addressed to forwarding addresses in the first address set; assign a second address set to the second gateway device, wherein the second address set comprises a plurality forwarding addresses, further wherein the second gateway device forwards packets sent by hosts and addressed to forwarding addresses in the second address set; measure the traffic flow to each forwarding address; and adjust the measured traffic flow by changing allocation of the forwarding addresses; wherein the load-sharing redundancy group provides failover services in the event that one of the gateway devices ceases operation; wherein both the first gateway device and the second gateway device forward packets at a given point in time. - View Dependent Claims (46, 47, 48, 49)
-
Specification