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US 12,706,847 B2Granted
Source load balancing of data packets
AssigneeCisco Technology, Inc.
InventorsRashmi Garg, Jon Langemak, Jerome Tollet, Benoit Ganne, Arthur de Kerhor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Disclosed is a method for load balancing at the source side rather than the destination side of a network. Destination networks can communicate with source load balancers by transmitting network protocol advertisements such as border gateway protocol (BGP) advertisements. The advertisements can communicate prefixes representing available subnets for load balancing purposes. The source load balancer would then load balance and transmit the network traffic along a path made up at least in part by the prefixes advertised by the network.
Claims20
A method comprising:
- receiving, at a load balancer at a source, an advertisement from a network device at a destination, the advertisement including a prefix representing an available subnet at the destination, wherein the available subnet is advertised as a next-hop subnet usable by the load balancer for forwarding network traffic toward a destination IP address at the destination;
- determining, by the load balancer at the source, a distribution of network traffic from the source among a plurality of available subnets represented by prefixes received in one or more of the advertisements;
- selecting one of the available subnets as the next-hop subnet for a packet of the network traffic independently of whether the destination IP address is included within IP addresses of the selected available subnet;
- and
- transmitting, by the load balancer at the source, the network traffic to the destination according to the distribution, including for the packet of the network traffic having the destination IP address, wherein, when the destination IP address is not within the selected available subnet, the packet is forwarded from the selected available subnet to a second subnet at the destination.
2 more elements
A load balancer comprising:
- a storage configured to store instructions;
- and
- at least one processor configured to execute the instructions and cause the at least one processor to:
- receive, at a source, an advertisement from a network device at a destination, the advertisement including a prefix representing an available subnet at the destination, wherein the available subnet is advertised as a next-hop subnet usable by the load balancer for forwarding network traffic toward a destination IP address at the destination;
- determine, at the source, a distribution of network traffic from the source among a plurality of available subnets represented by prefixes received in one or more of the advertisements;
- select one of the available subnets as the next-hop subnet for a packet of the network traffic independently of whether the destination IP address is included within IP addresses of the selected available subnet;
- and
- transmit, at the source, the network traffic to the destination according to the distribution, including for the packet of the network traffic having the destination IP address, wherein, when the destination IP address is not within the selected available subnet, the packet is forwarded from the selected available subnet to a second subnet at the destination.
5 more elements
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:
- receive, at a source, an advertisement from a network device at a destination, the advertisement including a prefix representing an available subnet at the destination, wherein the available subnet is advertised as a next-hop subnet usable by the load balancer for forwarding network traffic toward a destination IP address at the destination;
- determine, at the source, a distribution of network traffic from the source among a plurality of available subnets represented by prefixes received in one or more of the advertisements;
- select one of the available subnets as the next-hop subnet for a packet of the network traffic independently of whether the destination IP address is included within IP addresses of the selected available subnet;
- and
- transmit, at the source, the network traffic to the destination according to the distribution, including for the packet of the network traffic having the destination IP address, wherein, when the destination IP address is not within the selected available subnet, the packet is forwarded from the selected available subnet to a second subnet at the destination.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.