Internal packet steering within a wireless access gateway

A wireless access gateway for a wireless local area network (WLAN) access network, the wireless access gateway comprising:

• a plurality of forwarding units internal to the wireless access gateway;
• one or more processors configured to select, for a wireless endpoint device attached to the WLAN access network and by a wireless access gateway of the WLAN access network, an anchor forwarding unit from a plurality of forwarding units to process packets received from the wireless endpoint device, wherein each forwarding unit of the plurality of forwarding units is uniquely associated with a different layer 2 address,
• wherein the one or more processors are further configured to output, in response to receipt of an address resolution protocol request issued by the wireless endpoint device to resolve a gateway layer 3 address for the wireless access gateway and based on selection of the anchor forwarding unit for the wireless endpoint device, an address resolution protocol response that associates the layer 2 address uniquely associated with the anchor forwarding unit and the gateway layer 3 address for the wireless access gateway,
• wherein the anchor forwarding unit is configured to process, using a subscriber session context for the wireless endpoint device, the packets received from the wireless endpoint device to remove layer 2 destination addresses of the packets that are the layer 2 address uniquely associated with the anchor forwarding unit and to generate corresponding packets for output via an upstream interface of the wireless access gateway.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions for causing one or more programmable processors of a wireless access gateway for a wireless local area network (WLAN) access network to:

• select, for a wireless endpoint device attached to the WLAN access network, an anchor forwarding unit from a plurality of forwarding units to process packets received from the wireless endpoint device, wherein each forwarding unit of the plurality of forwarding units is uniquely associated with a different layer 2 address;
• and
• output, in response to receiving an address resolution protocol request issued by the wireless endpoint device to resolve a gateway layer 3 address for the wireless access gateway and based on the selecting of the anchor forwarding unit for the wireless endpoint device, an address resolution protocol response that associates the layer 2 address uniquely associated with the anchor forwarding unit and the gateway layer 3 address for the wireless access gateway;
• process, by the anchor forwarding unit using a subscriber session context for a subscriber session for the wireless endpoint device, the packets received from the wireless endpoint device to remove layer 2 destination addresses of the packets that are the layer 2 address uniquely associated with the anchor forwarding unit and to generate corresponding packets for output via an upstream interface of the wireless access gateway.