Method for transmitting load balancing in mixed speed environments

A method of load balancing in mixed speed environments, comprising:

• determining whether a packet for transmission within a data communication network is capable of being balanced;
• assigning to the packet a default network interface from a plurality of network interfaces, if the packet is not balanceable;
• determining whether client flow association exists between a client connection from a plurality of client connections and a server, which houses the plurality of network interfaces;
• creating an association, if client flow association does not exist;
• retrieving the association for storage in an association module;
• transmitting the packet through a least loaded network interface from the plurality of network interfaces;
• computing throughput for each client flow;
• and
• re-associating client flows across the plurality of network interfaces.

A system for transmitting load balancing in mixed speed environments, comprising:

• a computer readable medium and a computer readable program code stored on the computer readable medium having instructions to:
• calculate whether a packet for transmission within a data communication network is capable of being balanced;
• designate a default physical adapter from two or more physical adapters, if the packet cannot be balanced;
• establish whether client flow association between a client connection and the physical adapters exists;
• construct an association, if client flow association does not exist;
• retrieve the association to be stored in an association module;
• select a least loaded physical adapter from the two or more physical adapters;
• send the packet through the least loaded physical adapter;
• update an adapter current load value and update a client history throughput value;
• and
• recalculate the association and reassign to another physical adapter, if necessary, to provide optimized load balancing.