Patent ID: 7685290

Claim:
A method for handling Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) multi-homed connections across multiple translation devices, comprising: when an SCTP association between two hosts is being established through a particular translation device, from the particular translation device communicating multi-homing information for a particular one of the hosts to one or more other translation devices associated with the particular translation device so that the one or more other translation devices can store the multi-homing information and when at the one or more other translation devices data is received for the established SCTP association between the two hosts, causing the data to be sent to its intended destination based on the stored multi-homing information, wherein the multi-homing information, which is communicated from the particular translation device to the one or more other translation devices, includes multiple private addresses and/or ports for the particular host and a translation of a first private address or port of the particular host; storing the multi-homing information for the particular translation device; and when at the particular translation device data is received for the established SCTP association between the two hosts, causing the data to be sent to its intended destination based on the multi-homing information.