Flow based session drain director
AssigneeCumulus Networks, Inc.
InventorsWilson Kok, Shrijeet Mukherjee, James Rivers, Andrew R. Harding
Life of this patent
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Abstract
To accommodate graceful offloading of connections from a port of a network element, thereby allowing the port to be decommissioned, both existing and new connections allocated to that port according to a load balancing protocol are replicated on a backup port. Thereafter, or concurrently therewith, the port is configured to drop acknowledgements of the new connections, and the port is monitored so as to eventually identify an absence of connections thereon. At that time, the port may be decommissioned inasmuch as all new connections will have been established on the backup port and no previously existing connections on the original port will remain.
Claims20
A method, comprising:
- at a first network element having a plurality of downstream network elements communicatively connected via respective ports, wherein a second network element is communicatively connected to the first network element via a first port and a third network element is communicatively connected to the first network element via a second port, and connections are allocated to respective ones of the ports at the first network element according to a load balancing protocol, replicating connections between the first network element and the second network element on the first port on the second port such that both existing connections on the first port and new connections allocated to the first port according to the load balancing protocol are so replicated on the second port;
- configuring the first port to prevent initiation of the new connections with the second network element on the first port;
- monitoring the first port to identify an absence of connections thereon;
- and
- decommissioning the communicative coupling between the first and second network elements on the first port when the absence of connections thereon has been identified.
A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon processor-executable instructions, which instructions, when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform steps comprising:
- replicating connections between a first network element including said processor and a second network element on a first port of the first network element on the second port of the first network element such that both existing connections on the first port and new connections allocated to the first port according to a load balancing protocol are so replicated on the second port, wherein the first network element has a plurality of downstream network elements communicatively connected via respective ports, a third network element is communicatively connected to the first network element via the second port, and connections are allocated by the processor to respective ones of the ports at the first network element according to the load balancing protocol;
- configuring the first port of the first network element to prevent initiation of the new connections with the second network element on the first port;
- monitoring the first port to identify an absence of connections thereon;
- and
- decommissioning a communicative coupling between the first and second network elements on the first port when the absence of connections thereon has been identified.
A network infrastructure apparatus having a plurality of ports, comprising:
- a processor;
- and
- a memory, communicatively coupled to the processor, said memory storing processor-executable instructions, which instructions, when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform steps comprising:
- replicating connections between the network infrastructure apparatus and a first network element on a first port of the plurality of ports of the network infrastructure apparatus on a second port of the plurality of ports of the network infrastructure apparatus such that both existing connections on the first port and new connections allocated to the first port according to a load balancing protocol are so replicated on the second port;
- configuring the first port of the network infrastructure apparatus to prevent initiation of the new connections with the second network element on the first port;
- monitoring the first port to identify an absence of connections thereon;
- and
- decommissioning a communicative coupling between the network infrastructure apparatus and the first network element on the first port when the absence of connections thereon has been identified.
A method of allocating traffic among ports of a network infrastructure component, comprising replicating connections on a first port of the network infrastructure component on one or more second ports of the network infrastructure component such that both existing connections on the first port and new connections which would be allocated to the first port according to a first load balanced protocol are so replicated on the one or more second ports;
- configuring the first port of the network infrastructure component associated with existing communication sessions to prevent initiation of the new connections;
- configuring the one or more second ports of the network infrastructure component to drop reset requests associated with replicated ones of the existing connections on the one or more second ports;
- and, after all of the existing connections on the first port have been concluded, decommissioning the first port.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.