Receiver-signaled entropy labels for traffic forwarding in a computer network

A method, comprising:

• determining, at a receiver device, that the receiver device accepts flow entropy;
• determining a set of entropy labels the receiver device is accepting;
• transmitting the set of entropy labels from the receiver device to one or more sender devices;
• and
• receiving packets from the one or more sender devices with selected particular entropy labels from the set of entropy labels.

An apparatus, comprising:

• one or more network interfaces to communicate with a computer network;
• a processor coupled to the network interfaces and adapted to execute one or more processes;
• and
• a memory configured to store a process executable by the processor, the process when executed operable to:
• receive, as a sender device from a receiver device, a set of entropy labels the receiver device is accepting;
• determine a packet to forward to the receiver device with flow entropy;
• select a particular entropy label from the set of entropy labels for that receiver device;
• and
• transmit the packet to the receiver device with the selected particular entropy label.

An apparatus, comprising:

• one or more network interfaces to communicate with a computer network;
• a processor coupled to the network interfaces and adapted to execute one or more processes;
• and
• a memory configured to store a process executable by the processor, the process when executed operable to:
• determine, as a receiver device, that the receiver device accepts flow entropy;
• determine a set of entropy labels the receiver device is accepting;
• transmit the set of entropy labels to one or more sender devices;
• and
• receive packets from the one or more sender devices with selected particular entropy labels from the set of entropy labels.