Firewall clustering for multiple network servers
US6880089B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Mar 31, 2000 |
| Grant date | Apr 12, 2005 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Mar 31, 2020 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L2101/622
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A firewall clustering system connects two or more firewalls between an internal network and an external network. The plurality of two or more firewalls are combined to supply high-availability and scaling of processing capacity. Firewalls maintain client-server state information. Flow controllers are connected to the firewalls and placed on both the internal “trusted” side and the external “untrusted” side of the firewalls. Flow controllers are placed on both sides of the firewalls to ensure that traffic for a given client-server session flows through the same firewall in both inbound and outbound directions. The firewalls perform filtering operations and/or network address translation (NAT) services. In both cases, the flow controllers supply high availability, scalability, and traffic distribution for the firewalls in the firewall cluster.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.