Patent ID: 8223649

Claim:
A method of sending a packet from a source node to a destination node comprising: associating the packet with a traffic flow, the traffic flow directed from the source node to the destination node in a same broadcast domain, wherein the source node is connected with the destination node via a first and a second communication path, wherein the first communication path operates with a communication protocol and the second communication path operates with another communication protocol in the same broadcast domain, the same broadcast domain being a logical network segment in which any network connected device in the same broadcast domain is capable of transmitting to any other network connected device in the same broadcast domain in a manner that bypasses transmission through a routing device that shares a same subnet address; measuring a criterion for the first communication path and for the second communication path, wherein the criterion is based on an attribute of a policy setting; selecting between the first and second communication paths based on the measured criterion, the selecting being performed at an intermediate layer that is intermediate to both a layer 2 and a layer 3, the intermediate layer including a layer 3 interface to interface to the layer 3, the layer 3 interface including a first network interface and a second network interface, the first network interface being a virtual network interface, the second network interface being a pseudo network interface, the first network interface and the second network interface appearing to the layer 3 as physical network interfaces, the first network interface corresponding to a single actual physical network interface, the second network interface corresponding to multiple actual physical network interfaces, the intermediate layer to determine for any data to be sent by the layer 3 through the second network interface one or more paths through one or more of the multiple actual physical network interfaces, other data sent by the layer 3 through the first network interface being sent via the single physical network interface; assigning the selected communication path to the associated traffic flow; and sending the packet via the selected communication path.