Patent ID: 8189476

Claim:
A method for managing network traffic over a plurality of Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Level 2 switch ports, comprising: receiving network traffic over the plurality of OSI Level 2 switch ports; categorizing at least a part of the network traffic into a flow; selecting one of the plurality of OSI Level 2 switch ports based on a load-balancing metric, the load-balancing metric includes at least a combination of a weighted prediction of a load usage for the flow and a weighted congestion measure and evaluating the load-balancing metric to an adaptive threshold that is determined as a percentage of a next highest network flow associated with a non-selected one of the plurality of OSI Level 2 switch ports; sending a frame associated with the flow over the selected one of the plurality of OSI Level 2 switch ports, wherein at least a portion of data within the flow is parsed or compressed prior to sending the frame; and selectively switching the flow to an other one of the plurality of OSI Level 2 switch ports based on determining that an amount of network traffic within the selected one of the plurality of OSI Level 2 switch ports is above a value that is related to an amount of expected network traffic to be communicated over a non-selected one of the plurality of OSI Level 2 switch ports.