Patent ID: 8224961
Filing Date: 2012-07-17
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method for load-balancing subscriber sessions across a plurality of tunnel termination devices comprising: receiving a network access request and user information from a subscriber device; authenticating the user information with an access concentrator of a network service provider; retrieving tunnel definitions associated with the user information received from the subscriber device, the tunnel definitions defining a plurality of preference levels, wherein each of the plurality of preference levels specifies a different subset of the plurality of tunnel termination devices; selecting a highest level of the plurality of preference levels defined by the tunnel definitions; selecting one of the plurality of tunnel termination devices from the subset of the plurality of tunnel termination devices associated with the highest level of the plurality of preference levels based on weightings associated with each of the plurality of tunnel termination devices; attempting to establish a network tunnel between the selected one of the plurality of tunnel termination devices associated with the highest level of the plurality of preference levels and the access concentrator; upon failing to establish the network tunnel with the one of the plurality of tunnel termination devices associated with the highest level of the plurality of preference levels: