Patent ID: 8326929
Filing Date: 2012-12-04
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method comprising: receiving, by a computing device and from a server, topology mapping information associated with feature peers that are associated with a network; communicating, by the computing device, with the feature peers to obtain feature peer information associated with the feature peers, the feature peer information including load balancing information associated with the feature peers, receiving, by the computing device, a customer packet; determining, by the computing device, particular feature peers, of the feature peers, that support a feature associated with the customer packet, the particular feature peers being determined based on the topology mapping information and the load balancing information; selecting, by the computing device and from the determined particular feature peers, information identifying a set of feature peers for the customer packet to traverse; adding, by the computing device, a feature header to the customer packet to create a modified customer packet, forwarding, by the computing device and based on the information identifying the set of feature peers included in the feature header, the modified customer packet to a feature peer in the set of feature peers,