Patent ID: 7756029

Claim:
A method for providing dynamic load balancing in a data communications system, comprising: creating a link aggregation group in a data communications system with a plurality of physical links each of which having a capacity for transporting egress data or any part thereof, the link aggregation group formed by combining two or more of the plurality of physical links into a single logical link for egress data; allocating to the link aggregation group a set of link aggregation keys with each link aggregation key being assigned to a particular one of the physical links in the link aggregation group; deriving from egress data a data rate for each of the link aggregation keys; and performing dynamic load balancing based on the data rates and capacities of the physical links in the link aggregation group; wherein egress data includes payload and identifying information; and wherein the deriving step includes calculating a key value from the identifying information, comparing the key value to the link aggregation keys in the set, and calculating the data rate for one of the link aggregation keys to which the key value is a match.