Dynamic network load balancing over heterogeneous link speed

A method for balancing transmission unit traffic over heterogeneous speed network links, comprising:

• a. disposing transmission units into flows, wherein each of the transmission units includes one of source information, destination information, and a combination thereof, and the disposing comprises characterizing each of the transmission units according to one of the source information, the destination information, and a combination thereof, and wherein each of the transmission units comprise one of a packet, a frame, a cell, and a combination thereof;
• b. grouping flows into first flow lists, each of the first decreasing-size-ordered linked flow lists corresponding to a selected network link;
• c. determining a traffic metric representative of a traffic load on the selected network link;
• d. responsive to the traffic metric, regrouping flows into second decreasing-size-ordered linked flow lists corresponding to the selected network link, the regrouping balancing the transmission unit traffic among the network links;
• and
• e. transmitting the respective second flow list over the respective selected network link using a predetermined link-layer transmission protocol, wherein the predetermined link-layer transmission protocol communicates the transmission unit traffic over the network links in cooperation with a network-layer protocol;
• wherein the network-layer protocol cooperates with a transport-layer protocol to communicate the transmission unit traffic across the network links, and wherein each of the network-layer protocol and the transport-layer protocol is one of a connectionless protocol and a connection-based protocol.

A method for transmitting transmission units through a network, comprising:

• a. receiving a transmission unit from a transmission unit source;
• b. classifying the transmission unit according to a predetermined flow characteristic;
• c. selecting a preselected network link over which the transmission unit is to be transmitted;
• and
• d. transmitting the transmission unit over the preselected network link.

A computer program product recorded on a computer readable medium for balancing transmission unit traffic over network links, comprising:

• a. computer readable program code which disposes transmission units into flows;
• b. computer readable program code which groups flows into first flow lists, each of the first flow lists corresponding to a selected network link;
• c. computer readable program code which determines a traffic metric representative of a traffic load on the selected network link;
• d. computer readable program code which, responsive to the traffic metric, re-assigns flows into second flow lists corresponding to the selected network link, the re-assigning balancing the transmission unit traffic among the network links;
• and
• e. computer readable program code which transmits the respective second flow list over the respective selected network link.