Patent ID: 8270290

Claim:
A method of interfacing a Client System (CS) with a network domain, the CS including an Aggregator function for load spreading ingress traffic originating from the CS across two or more parallel links of a Link Aggregation Group (LAG), the method comprising: providing a set of two or more peer edge nodes of the network domain, each one of the set of peer edge nodes including: a local LAG port hosting a corresponding LAG link connected to the CS; and at least one port hosting an inter-node trunk connecting the node to each of the other ones of the set of peer edge nodes; computing a respective path through the network domain from each peer edge node to at least one predetermined destination address, for carrying traffic to or from the CS; and at each peer edge node, installing forwarding state such that: ingress traffic received from the CS is forwarded via the path to the at least one predetermined destination address; and egress traffic destined for the CS is forwarded to the CS via the local LAG port, if the local LAG port is operational, and otherwise via the inter-node trunk to another one of the set of peer edge nodes; wherein computing a path through the network domain comprises: computing a set of two or more equal cost paths from any given peer edge node to the at least one predetermined destination address; and selecting one path from among the computed set of two or more equal cost paths; and wherein a respective set of two or more equal cost paths are computed for each one of at least two of the set of peer edge nodes, and wherein selecting one of the computed set of two or more equal cost paths comprises: assigning a respective different rank to each of the involved peer edge nodes, for which two or more equal cost paths were calculated; and for each involved peer edge node: assigning a respective different rank to each one of its respective set of two of more equal cost paths; and selecting the path having a rank matching that of the involved peer edge node.