Patent ID: 9319459
Filing Date: 2016-04-19
CPC Classification: H04L

Claim Text:
1. A method comprising: receiving session information at a traffic interceptor in communication with a plurality of service devices, said session information transmitted from one of the service devices and identifying flows associated with a session and the service device associated with the session, wherein the traffic interceptor is located in a communication path between a source and a destination and operable to intercept traffic on the communication path and transmit the traffic to one of the service devices; storing said session information at the traffic interceptor, wherein storing said session information comprises storing a flow entry mapping the flows associated with the session to the service device transmitting the session information; intercepting traffic received at the traffic interceptor on the communication path; searching said session information for a flow corresponding to the traffic, wherein searching comprises performing a lookup in a flow table containing said session information to select one of the service devices to transmit the traffic; identifying the service device to transmit the traffic based on said session information; transmitting the traffic received at the traffic interceptor to the service device selected based on said session information; receiving the traffic back from the service device after the service device applies services to the traffic; and forwarding the traffic to the destination; wherein the session comprises an application session comprising a series of related flows, each of the flows comprising a sequence of packets sent from the source to the destination; and wherein the traffic interceptor uses said session information to identify the traffic associated with said session to perform session aware traffic distribution said session information comprising application level information.