Patent ID: 7693044

Claim:
A computing device configured to support one or more network connections using load balancing and fail-over techniques, the computing device comprising: a first network interface card (NIC) and a second NIC configured as a team of NICs; an operating system that includes a software stack for managing network connections; a network resource manager configured to perform load balancing and fail-over operations, wherein each of the first NIC and the second NIC is coupled to the network resource manager; and a logical NIC that includes a first function driver associated with the first NIC, a second function driver associated with the second NIC, and a virtual function driver associated with the team of NICs, wherein each of the first function driver and the second function driver is coupled to the network resource manager but not to the software stack within the operating system, and the virtual function driver is coupled to both the network resource manager and the software stack within the operating system, wherein each of the first function driver, the second function driver and the virtual function driver is coupled to the software stack within the operating system through a software binding when each of the first function driver, the second function driver, and the virtual function driver is created, and afterwards, the software bindings between the first function driver and the software stack and the second function driver and the software stack are removed, and the software binding between the virtual function driver and the software stack is not removed.