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:
Sep. 07, 2004
Filed:
Jun. 01, 1999
Applicant:
Inventors:
Daniel Boudreau, Westford, MA (US);
J. Martin Borden, Littleton, MA (US);
James A. Philippou, Nashua, NH (US);
Shawn Mamros, Arlington, MA (US);
Kerry M. Hannigan, Boston, MA (US);
John T. O'Hara, Andover, MA (US);
Bernard Farrell, Littleton, MA (US);
Assignee:
Nortel Networks Limited, St. Laurent, CA;
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H04L 1/226 ; H04L 1/00 ; H04J 3/14 ; G06F 1/100 ; G08C 1/500 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
H04L 1/226 ; H04L 1/00 ; H04J 3/14 ; G06F 1/100 ; G08C 1/500 ;
Abstract
The present invention is a method and apparatus to balance load in a cluster of switches in a network. The switches include a local switch and one or more remote switches. Messages containing load information of the switches are exchanged among the switches. One of the switches is selected to respond to a connection request to the local switch based on a metric.