Patent ID: 6788692
Filing Date: 2004-09-07
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A method to balance load in a cluster of switches in a network, the switches including a local switch and one or more remote switches, the method comprising:exchanging messages among the switches, the messages including an advertise message sent at a refresh interval, the advertise message containing load information of the switches including at least one of a version number, a message type, the refresh interval, an authentication method, a source address, a public address, a checksum, a processor idle time, a free connection, and an authentication data, the exchanging the messages comprising: receiving the advertise message from a source switch, the advertise message containing the load information of the source switch including a switch attribute, the receiving an advertise message comprising: listening on a broadcast port, and processing the advertise message to extract the switch attribute, and storing the switch attribute in a peer table; and selecting one of the switches in response to a connection request to the local switch based on a metric; wherein processing the advertise message comprises: validating the checksum; authenticating the advertise message using the authentication method and the authentication data; validating the source address; validating at least one of the version number, the message type, and the refresh interval; setting a time-to-live (TTL) value using a predetermined maximum TTL value; and extracting the switch attribute.