Employing rate shaping class capacities and metrics to balance connections

A method of managing a communication between a client and a server over a network, comprising:

• receiving, from the client, a request for a network connection;
• determining a rate class associated with the request;
• for each network link in a plurality of network links, wherein each network link is directed towards a different network node, determining an availability of a link resource for the determined rate class;
• employing a network device to employ the availability of the link resource for the determined rate class and using a weighted combination of a plurality of network metrics including failure rates of pings, to select a network link for the request from the plurality of network links based on a load balancing mechanism;
• establishing a network connection over the selected network link towards the server for the request;
• and
• directing any subsequent packets that are part of the same communication flow, to the same network link, so as to maintain the state information of the communication flow.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions, the computer-executable instructions when installed onto a computing device enable the computing device to perform actions for managing a communication over a network, comprising:

• sending a request for a network connection, wherein a rate class is associated with the request;
• determining for each network link in a plurality of network links an availability of a link resource for the rate class, wherein each network link is directed towards a different network node in the network;
• selecting a network link from the plurality of network links and using a weighted combination of a plurality of network metrics including failure rates of pings, to balance the link resource for the rate class across the plurality of network links;
• enabling the requested network connection to be established over the selected network link;
• and
• directing any subsequent packets that are part of the same communication flow, to the same network link, so as to maintain the state information of the communication flow.

A network device for managing a communication between a client and a server, comprising:

• a transceiver to exchange data between the client and the server;
• a traffic management component that is programmed to perform actions comprising:
• receiving a request for a network connection;
• and associating a target network link with the request for a network connection, by using a weighted combination of a plurality of network metrics including failure rates of pings to select the target network link from a plurality of network links based, in part, on a load balancing mechanism that employs a rate class metric for each of a plurality of network links, wherein each network link in the plurality of network links is directed to a different network node in a path between the client and the server, then enable the requested network connection to be established over the selected network link;
• and direct any subsequent packets that are part of the same communication flow, to the same network link, so as to maintain the state information of the communication flow.