Router pooling in a network flowswitch

Abstract

A router fault tolerant network interface system includes a switch circuit configured to detect when a router fails in a multi-router local network. When a failed router is detected, the switch circuit waits for a time-out period to expire to allow convergence. The switch circuit then intervenes when traffic from a server to the failed router is detected. The switch circuit translates the MAC address of the failed router to the MAC address of a functional router. Traffic from a server originally directed to the failed router is then redirected to a functional router. In a further refinement, the switch circuit provides the MAC address of a functional router in response to an ARP request from a server to the failed router. Thus, traffic from this server will be directed to the functional router without further intervention, reducing the overhead of the switch circuit. In still a further refinement, if the failed router recovers, the switch circuit waits for a time-out period to expire to allow convergence of external routers and to allow the recovered router to learn routes to known clients. The switch circuit then ceases all intervention for the MAC address of the now recovered router.