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Abstract

A network controller system including multiple network ports and a driver system that programs each of the network ports with a common multicast address and that operates the network ports as a team. The team is operated to form a virtual device in one of several team modes, such as fault tolerance or load balancing, to enhance performance of communication of the computer in a network. The driver system commands at least one of the network ports to transmit a multicast heartbeat packet, where each of the other network ports receives and transfers the multicast heartbeat packet to the driver system. In this manner, the driver system need only send one multicast heartbeat packet to test all of the other network ports. Two network ports are selected to each send a heartbeat packet to test each other heartbeat port and the remaining ports. Multicast heartbeat packets are substantially more efficient than broadcast heartbeat packets, since the number of packets transmitted on a network is substantially reduced and the amount of unnecessary processing per heartbeat packet is reduced or even eliminated.

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First Claim