Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Microsoft Corporation

Feng Sun

Joseph M Joy

Cem Paya

David R Mowers

John A Banes

Pradeep Bahl

Arnold S Miller

Bernard Aboda

Bernard Aboba

An exemplary network gateway is capable of accepting a session-related message having a session identifier field; the network gateway is adapted to extract a host identifier from a value populating the session identifier field and to perform a routing operation for the session-related message using the host identifier. For an exemplary media implementation, processor-executable instructions direct a device to perform actions including: ascertaining a host identifier from a session identifier field of a session message; and routing the session message responsive to the ascertained host identifier. An exemplary apparatus includes: at least one processor; and one or more media including processor-executable instructions that are capable of being executed by the at least one processor to direct the apparatus to perform actions including: receiving a session message having a session identifier including a host identifier; and routing the session message responsive to the host identifier.

Routing hints

A first exemplary media implementation includes processor-executable instructions that direct a device to perform actions including: creating a session identifier using a host identifier; and formulating a host session initiation message with the created session identifier. A first exemplary device implementation includes: at least one processor; and one or more media including processor-executable instructions that direct the device to perform actions including: formulating a host session message with a session identifier that is created responsive to a host identifier; and sending the formulated host session message that includes the session identifier from the device. A second exemplary media implementation includes a data structure that has a message including a session identifier field, at least part of the session identifier field including a host identifier. A second exemplary device implementation includes: a host identifier; and a session identifier creator that is adapted to create a session identifier using the host identifier.

A method and system for enhancing a network load balancing system's ability to distribute connection information and data amongst the plurality of nodes within the system is presented. A client connection request is redirected to a load balancing service residing on a receiving node by modifying the destination port information contained within the packet. The receiving node can be any node within the load balancing system, and is determined from amongst the plurality of nodes that comprise the system by a conventional means. A transparent connection is then established between the client and the load balancing service residing on the node by modifying subsequently transmitted connection setup packets sent by the receiving node and the client. A target node is determined according to resource specific information contained within initially received data packets from the client. The target node determined this way could be the local node or another node. If it is another node, the connection parameters and the data received over the connection are passed to a peer load balancing service residing on the target node. The target load balancing service then instructs TCP/IP to create a Transmission Control Block for the connection and TCP/IP indicates the connection to the appropriate client resource. The target load balancing service sends a 'migration completed' message to the receiving node. Upon receiving this notification, the receiving load balancing service instructs a corresponding load balancing driver to stop handling subsequent packets received from that particular client, while the target node is enabled to accept the packets.

Transparent migration of TCP based connections within a network load balancing system

Presented is a system and a method for load balancing multiple globally-dispersed servers based on client-centric performance criteria. The infrastructure of the system includes load balancing domain name servers (DNS-LBs) deployed in close physical proximity to the Internet service providers' points of presence. The DNS-LBs are then able to monitor the performance of the servers from a location close to the clients, which allows the DNS-LBs to select a server that will yield the best performance from that location for the client. A second level of the infrastructure utilizes domain name servers (DNS-Bs) that are deployed on the Internet backbones and regional provides. The authoritative domain name servers (DNS-As) for the servers to be load balanced refer all name queries to these DNS-Bs. The DNS-Bs then refer the queries to one of the DNS-LBs based on a mapping of the DNS-ISP address to its physically proximate DNS-LB. The DNS-LB then returns the IP address of the server that will provide the best performance from that location.

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Issaquah, WA, United States of America

Feng Sun