Patent ID: 7299294

Claim:
A data traffic controller for a computer network, the data traffic controller comprising: a network interface that permits communication with a subnet over which network data is sent and received; and a plurality of computers connected in a cluster between the network interface and the subnet to form a distributed gateway for communicating network data between said network interface and said subnet, each of which computers executes a distributed gateway application that dynamically assigns any of a plurality of virtual network addresses selected from a pool of virtual addresses to any of a plurality of primary network addresses to send network data to an intended host on the subnet, wherein network data intended for said host on the subnet is addressed to one of the virtual network addresses, and wherein the computers communicate operational status information among themselves for each computer on the same subnet using a group membership protocol word to dynamically reconfigure network data traffic assignments among the plurality of computers in response to said status information for said dynamic assignment of virtual network addresses, wherein one computer can configure and monitor the operating condition of another computer in the distributed gateway cluster.