Patent · US Active

Maintaining load balancing after service application with a network device

US9036476B2 · kind B2 · utility

10Cited by
13References
25Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateSep 28, 2012
Grant dateMay 19, 2015
Priority date
Expiry dateJan 25, 2033

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04W8/04
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

In general, techniques are described for maintaining load balancing after service application. A network device comprising ingress and egress forwarding components and a service card may implement the techniques. An ingress forwarding component receives a packet and, in response to a determination that the service is to be applied to the packet, updates the packet to include an ingress identifier that identifies the ingress forwarding component, thereafter transmitting the updated packet to the service card. The service card applies the service to the updated packet to generate a serviced packet and transmits the serviced packet to the ingress forwarding component identified by the ingress identifier so as to maintain load balancing of packet flows across the plurality of forwarding components. The ingress forwarding component determines a next hop to which to forward the serviced packet and the egress forwarding component forwards the serviced packet to the determined next hop.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.