Patent ID: 8879397
Filing Date: 2014-11-04
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A computer-implemented method comprising: detecting, with a computer system including one or more computers in a network, a flow of packets; identifying the detected flow as a big flow, the big flow having packet header information identifying a source host and a destination host of the big flow; probing, with the computer system and responsive to detection of the big flow, the network by altering the packet header information to discover one or more alternative paths from the source host to the destination host in the network; generating, with the computer system and for each of the one or more alternative paths, an association of the packet header information to an alternative path discovered using results of probing the network, wherein the alternative path is identified by at least one of an alternative source port and an alternative destination port; determining if congestion exists on a path currently being used by the big flow in the network; selecting, with the computer system and responsive to a determination of the existence of congestion on the path currently being used, an alternative path that is from the one or more alternative paths and that is not congested; altering the packet header information of the big flow, with the computer system, by replacing at least one of a value of a source port number or a destination port number in the packet header information of the big flow with a least one of a value of the alternative source port or the alternative destination port using the generated association of the packet header information to the selected alternative path such that the big flow will be transmitted from the source host to the destination host using the selected alternative path; and replacing, upon receipt of the big flow at the destination host, the at least one of a value of the alternative source port number or the alternative destination port number in the altered packet header information with a value of corresponding fields of the original packet header information of the big flow.