Patent ID: 7881208

Claim:
A method implemented on a gateway device to provide load balancing gateway services to hosts on a network segment, the method comprising: receiving at the gateway device an address resolution protocol (ARP) message from a host addressed to an address shared by a plurality of gateway devices available for serving the hosts on the network segment; in response to the received ARP message, and based at least in part on load balancing considerations, the gateway device selecting one of the plurality of gateway devices to act as the addressee gateway device for the host, when the gateway device is acting as a master gateway device for the plurality of gateway devices; and the gateway device replying to the ARP message with a reply message identifying the selected addressee gateway device, when the gateway device is acting as a master gateway device for the plurality of gateway devices, wherein, when the gateway device is acting as a master gateway device for the plurality of gateway devices, the gateway device replies to every ARP message sent to the address shared by the plurality of gateway devices, and selects a gateway device in response to each of such ARP messages.