Patent ID: 9288183
Filing Date: 2016-03-15
CPC Classification: H04L

Claim Text:
1. A method comprising: causing, by a switching device within a network, a plurality of firewall security devices within the network and operating as part of a cluster to enter into a load balancing mode by sending one or more control messages to the plurality of firewall security devices; responsive to receiving, by the switching device, a heartbeat signal on a port of a plurality of ports of the switching device from a firewall security device of the plurality of firewall security devices, including information regarding the firewall security device and the port into a load balancing table maintained by the switching device that maps a plurality of hash values or emulated hash values output by a load balancing function to the plurality of ports; receiving, by the switching device, a packet from a client device associated with the network; and forwarding, by the switching device, the packet to a firewall security device of the cluster by: wherein the configurable set of bit positions are not limited to being contiguous;