Patent ID: 7490164
Filing Date: 2009-02-10
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method of routing data from a client through one or more load-balancing routers to a selected load-balanced server among a plurality of servers in a network, the method comprising the steps of: receiving, at a load balancing node in a path from the client to the plurality of servers, a first packet of a request from a client; creating and storing a mapping of flow identifying information, associated with the first packet, to a client stickiness label and a sending path list, wherein the sending path list identifies a path in the network from the client to a selected server; storing identifiers of egress interfaces on which the first packet arrives, in the sending path list, as the first packet of the client request is routed to the plurality of servers using hop-by-hop routing decisions; and forwarding all subsequent packets associated with the client request to the selected load-balanced server based on looking up the client stickiness label of such subsequent packets in the mapping and without hop-by-hop routing decisions.