Patent ID: 8547844

Claim:
A method for distributing load in a network, the method comprising the steps of: configuring a set of routers for providing Internet Protocol (IP) gateway services to a set of hosts, each router in the set of routers backing up all the other routers in the same set using Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP), all routers receiving all VRRP MAC addresses for all VRRP groups, each host configured to use a single IP address for their default gateway; each router in the set utilizing identical load distribution policies, load distribution properties and load distribution arrangement; determining a Load Distribution Function (LDF) master router for the set of routers, wherein the LDF master is the only router to respond to Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) “whohas” messages or Neighbor Solicitation messages which are received by all the routers and wherein each one of the set of routers is capable of becoming an LDF master router in the event the current LDF master becomes unavailable; every router in the set of routers utilizing the same algorithm to compute load distribution; all routers that are Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) masters are sending VRRP advertisement messages to all the routers, wherein the VRRP advertisement includes load balancing information to enable any one of the routers to replace the LDF master router; and dynamically adjusting load as routers are added to the network by the master router considering its own position, and each router's position in the set of routers and the routers that are added positions.