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US 6,208,616 B1Granted
System for detecting errors in a network
Assignee3Com Corporation
InventorsMallikarjunan Mahalingam, Walter August Wallach
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system is described for providing fault tolerance within a computer system. The system provides a method for allowing multiple network interface cards to reside within the same computer system. If the primary network interface card fails, a secondary network interface card automatically begins managing the network communications. In addition, a system that provides load-sharing of data transmissions between each network interface card installed in a server computer is described.
Claims10
A computer system comprising:
- a protocol stack;
- a plurality of network interface cards (NICs) and a second in communication with the protocol stack;
- and
- a program module in communication with said protocol stack, wherein said program module includes instructions for routing data packets from said protocol stack, wherein said routing comprises,
- designating one of the plurality of NICs as a primary NIC and designating the remainder of the NICs as secondary NICs;
- sending a probe packet to each of the NICs;
- attempting to receive a return packet in response to the probe packet from each of the NICs;
- if a return packet is not received from an NIC in the group, designating the NIC a failed NIC;
- redirecting packets that were originally addressed to the failed NIC to at least one other NIC through the protocol stack;
- if the failed NIC is the primary NIC, designating another NIC as a new primary NIC;
- sending a probe packet to the failed NIC;
- attempting to receive a return packet from the failed NIC;
- and
- if the failed NIC is the primary NIC and a return packet is received from the failed primary NIC, designating the failed NIC as a secondary NIC.
11 more elements
A programmed storage device for load balancing network traffic between a plurality of network interface cards, comprising instructions that when executed perform the method of:
- determining an address of a primary network interface card (NIC) and an address of a secondary NIC in a computer system;
- binding said primary NIC and said secondary NIC into a group;
- and
- routing a portion of a plurality of data packets sent to the address of said primary NIC to address of said secondary NIC, wherein routing comprises,
- sending a probe packet to each of the NICs in the group;
- attempting to receive a return packet in response to the probe packet from each of the NICs in group;
- if a return packet is not received from an NIC in the group, designating the NIC a failed NIC;
- redirecting packets from the failed NIC to at least one other NIC in the group;
- if the failed NIC is the primary NIC designating another NIC in the group as a new primary NIC;
- sending a probe packet to the failed NIC;
- attempting to receive a return packet from the failed NIC;
- if a return packet is received from the failed NIC;
- binding the failed NIC into the group;
- and
- if the failed NIC is the primary NIC and a return packet is received from the failed primary NIC, binding the failed NIC into the group as a secondary NIC.
12 more elements
A method of rerouting network packets in a network, comprising:
- binding a plurality of network interface cards (NICs) into a group, wherein a group is coupled to a network segment, and wherein each of the plurality of network interface cards is in communication with a protocol stack;
- designating one of the plurality of NICs in the group as a primary NIC and designating the remainder of the NICs in the group as secondary NICs, wherein the primary NIC is an only NIC visible to an operating system coupled to the network segment;
- sending a probe packet to each of the NICs in the group;
- attempting to receive a return packet in response to the probe packet from each of the NICs in the group;
- if a return packet is not received from an NIC in the group, designating the NIC a failed NIC;
- redirecting packets from that were originally directed to the failed NIC to at least one other NIC in the group through the protocol stack;
- if the failed NIC is the primary NIC, designating another NIC in the group as a new primary NIC;
- sending a probe packet to the failed NIC;
- attempting to receive a return packet from the failed NIC;
- if a return packet is received from the failed NIC;
- binding the failed NIC into the group;
- and
- if the failed NIC is the primary NIC and a return packet is received from the failed primary NIC, binding the failed NIC into the group as a secondary NIC.
10 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.