Patent ID: 7739384

Claim:
A method for performing symmetrical load balancing in a packet-based network, said method comprising: spoofing a router, said router being located between a group of two or more servers having at least one joint IP address and a network, such that a network side of the router is connected to the network and a server side of the router is connected to a first side of the group of two or more servers, so that at least one remote client subnetwork, which is connected to a second side of the group of two or more servers in such a way that the router and the group of one or more servers is communicatively positioned between the remote client subnetwork and the network and the remote client subnetwork having remote clients of the group of one or more servers, appears to be connected to the server side interface of the router to which said group of one or more servers is connected; electing one server from the group of two or more servers as a leader of the group; receiving a request for a new connection between the at least one remote client subnetwork and the network; and the leader of the group selecting a server from the group of two or more servers for said request and forwarding said request to the selected server; and wherein the operation of the group of two or more servers is transparent to a remote client of the at least one remote client subnetwork and to a node in the network and a connection between the remote client of the at least one remote client subnetwork and the node in the network is using the IP address of said remote client and the IP address of said node in the network; and wherein the network is based on the Internet Protocol.