The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 06, 2003
Filed:
Mar. 18, 1999
RamKrishna Vepa, Danville, CA (US);
Roman G. Baker, San Jose, CA (US);
Sameer Nanda, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Thomas A. Maufer, Santa Clara, CA (US);
3Com Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A method for load balancing incoming data packets in a server computer system adapted to have a plurality of network interface cards coupled thereto and communicatively coupled to client computer systems in a network. A first media access control (MAC) address for a first NIC is selected using a load balancing scheme. A first directed data packet containing the first MAC address and a network address for the server computer system is sent to a first client computer system. The first MAC address and the network address are stored in a protocol cache of the first client computer system. A second MAC address for a second NIC is also selected using the load balancing scheme. A second directed packet containing the second MAC address and the network address is sent to a second client computer system. The second MAC address and the network address are stored in a protocol cache of the second client computer system. Thus, the server computer system will receive an incoming data packet from the first client computer system over the first NIC and from the second computer system over the second NIC.