Method of detecting errors in a network
Assignee3Com Corporation
InventorsMallikarjunan Mahalingam, Walter August Wallach
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method is described for providing fault tolerance within a computer system. The method allows multiple network interface cards to reside within the same computer system. If a primary network interface card fails, a secondary network interface card automatically begins managing the network communications. In addition, a method of load-sharing data transmissions between each network interface card installed in a server computer is described.
Claims19
A method of load balancing network traffic between a plurality of network interface cards, comprising:
- a) determining the address of a primary network interface card (NIC) and a secondary NIC in a computer system;
- b) binding said primary NIC and secondary NIC into a group;
- and
- c) routing a portion of the data packets sent to the address of said primary NIC to the address of said secondary network interface card.
An apparatus for load balancing traffic on a network between a plurality of network interface cards (NICs) in a computer, the computer including a program for sending a plurality of data packets over the network, the plurality of NICs including at least a first NIC and a second NIC, the apparatus comprising:
- means for determining an address corresponding to each NIC in the plurality of NICs;
- means for binding the plurality of NICs into a group using the address corresponding to each NIC in the plurality of NICs;
- and
- means for routing a portion of the plurality of data packets addressed to the first NIC by the program to at least the second NIC in the group for transmission over the network.
A computer program for load balancing traffic on a network between a plurality of network interface cards (NICs) in a computer, the plurality of NICs including at least a first NIC and a second NIC, the computer program comprising:
- a first set of instructions for intercepting a data packet sent by a second computer program to the first NIC for transmission over the network, the data packet including a source media access control (MAC) address corresponding to the first NIC;
- a second set of instructions for selecting the second NIC in the plurality of NICs according to usage of the plurality of NICs;
- a third set of instructions for setting the source MAC address in the data packet to correspond to the second NIC;
- and
- a fourth set of instructions for forwarding the data packet to the second NIC.
An server computer comprising:
- a plurality of network interface cards (NICs), each of the plurality of NICs capable of being coupled to respective networks, the plurality of NICs including at least a first NIC and a second NIC;
- a memory, the memory comprising
- a plurality of programs, each program in the plurality of programs controlling respective NICs in the plurality of NICs to transmit data packets for the respective NIC over the respective network,
- a first program, the first program generating a data packet for the first NIC, the data packet including a source address, and
- a second program intercepting the data packet, selecting the second NIC in the plurality of NICs in a round-robin order, modifying the source address to correspond to the second NIC and sending the packet to the respective program in the plurality of programs for the second NIC;
- and
- a processor, the processor executing the first program, the plurality of programs and the second program.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.