Patent ID: 8660005

Claim:
A method for load balancing traffic in a network device, comprising: receiving a data unit at the network device via a first physical port; determining a first virtual port corresponding to the first physical port; determining an initial key based on information included in the data unit; determining a hash value corresponding to the data unit based on the initial key and associated with at least one virtual port of the network device, including: generating a depolarized initial key from the initial key by using a depolarizer that is unique, within a communication network including the network device, to the network device, and performing a hash function on the depolarized initial key to determine the hash value for the data unit; determining, based on the hash value, a second virtual port to which the data unit is to be forwarded; determining a second physical port corresponding to the second virtual port; and causing the data unit to be egressed from the network device via the second physical port.