Effective seeding of CRC functions for flows' path polarization prevention in networks

An apparatus comprising:

• a network interface configured to communicate with a plurality of network elements in a network;
• and
• a processor coupled to the network interface, the processor configured to:
• obtain a network topology for the network to provide load balancing for packets in network flows, the packets associated with a Load Balancing Flow Vector (LBFV) corresponding to flow attributes of the network flows;
• determine whether the network topology includes a first stage comprising a plurality of first network elements and a second stage comprising a plurality of second network elements, wherein the packets in the network flows pass through only one of the plurality of first network elements and only one of the plurality of second network elements;
• responsive to a determination that the network topology includes a first stage and a second stage, generate a first reordering sequence and a second reordering sequence different than the first reordering sequence;
• cause the network interface to provide the first reordering sequence to the plurality of first network elements in the first stage, the first reordering sequence enabling the plurality of first network elements to load balance the packets in the network flows by reordering a corresponding LBFV before selecting a first next hop;
• and
• cause the network interface to provide the second reordering sequence to the plurality of second network elements in the second stage, the second reordering sequence enabling the plurality of second network elements to load balance the packets in the network flows by reordering the corresponding LBFV before selecting a second next hop.

One or more non-transitory computer readable storage media encoded with software comprising computer executable instructions that, when the software is executed on a network controller, is operable to cause a processor of the network controller to:

• obtain a network topology for a network to provide load balancing for packets in network flows, the packets associated with a Load Balancing Flow Vector (LBFV) corresponding to flow attributes of the network flows;
• determine whether the network topology includes a first stage comprising a plurality of first network elements and a second stage comprising a plurality of second network elements, wherein the packets in the network flows pass through only one of the plurality of first network elements and only one of the plurality of second network elements;
• responsive to a determination that the network topology includes a first stage and a second stage, generate a first reordering sequence and a second reordering sequence different than the first reordering sequence;
• provide the first reordering sequence to the plurality of first network elements in the first stage, the first reordering sequence enabling the plurality of first network elements to load balance the packets in the network flows by reordering a corresponding LBFV before selecting a first next hop;
• and
• provide the second reordering sequence to the plurality of second network elements in the second stage, the second reordering sequence enabling the plurality of second network elements to load balance the packets in the network flows by reordering the corresponding LBFV before selecting a second next hop.