초록 ▼

A method and system is directed to distributing a flow of packets over a network to multiple traffic management devices. An apparatus receives each packet from a network and may act as a layer 2 switch, or router, to distribute the packet to one of a group of traffic management devices. The apparatu

A method and system is directed to distributing a flow of packets over a network to multiple traffic management devices. An apparatus receives each packet from a network and may act as a layer 2 switch, or router, to distribute the packet to one of a group of traffic management devices. The apparatus also may receive packets from servers for which the traffic management devices are managing communications. When distributing packets, a target traffic management device is selected from the group of traffic management devices. A connection key associated with the received packet and an identifier associated with the selected traffic management device are saved such that subsequent received packets in the flow of packets are delivered to the same traffic management device.

대표청구항 ▼

We claim: 1. An apparatus for routing at least one flow of packets over a network comprising:(a) a transceiver arranged to receive and forward each packet in a flow of packets; and(b) a processor, coupled to the transceiver, that is arranged to perform actions, including:(i) if at least one received

We claim: 1. An apparatus for routing at least one flow of packets over a network comprising:(a) a transceiver arranged to receive and forward each packet in a flow of packets; and(b) a processor, coupled to the transceiver, that is arranged to perform actions, including:(i) if at least one received packet in the flow of packets is associated with a traffic manager, forwarding the flow of packets to the associated traffic manager; and(ii) if each received packet in the flow of packets is unassociated with the traffic manager, performing actions, including:(A) selecting another traffic manager;(B) associating said another traffic manager with the flow of packets, wherein each received packet in the flow of packets is forwarded to said another traffic manager; andwherein selecting another traffic manager further comprises basing the selection in part on at least one of a round trip time (RTT), a least connections, a packet completion rate, a quality of service, a traffic management device packet rate, a topology, a global availability, a hop metric, a hash of an address in a received packet, a static ratio, a dynamic ratio, a source IP address, a destination IP address, a port number, and a round robin mechanism.