Importance

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Abstract

A method and system for enhancing a network load balancing system's ability to distribute connection information and data amongst the plurality of nodes within the system is presented. A client connection request is redirected to a load balancing service residing on a receiving node by modifying the destination port information contained within the packet. The receiving node can be any node within the load balancing system, and is determined from amongst the plurality of nodes that comprise the system by a conventional means. A transparent connection is then established between the client and the load balancing service residing on the node by modifying subsequently transmitted connection setup packets sent by the receiving node and the client. A target node is determined according to resource specific information contained within initially received data packets from the client. The target node determined this way could be the local node or another node. If it is another node, the connection parameters and the data received over the connection are passed to a peer load balancing service residing on the target node. The target load balancing service then instructs TCP/IP to create a Transmission Control Block for the connection and TCP/IP indicates the connection to the appropriate client resource. The target load balancing service sends a “migration completed” message to the receiving node. Upon receiving this notification, the receiving load balancing service instructs a corresponding load balancing driver to stop handling subsequent packets received from that particular client, while the target node is enabled to accept the packets.

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First Claim