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. 20, 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 selecting a network interface card (NIC) to be used to send an outgoing data packet from a server computer system having a plurality of NICs coupled thereto. The outgoing data packet is addressed using an Internet Protocol (IP) address and a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) port number. A load balancing scheme is executed in order to select a NIC from the plurality of NICs. In one embodiment, the load balancing scheme is a function of the IP address; in alternate embodiments, the load balancing scheme is a function of the IP address and either the destination or source TCP port number. The media access control (MAC) address that represents the selected NIC is inserted in the outgoing data packet. The data packet is then sent using the selected NIC.