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:
Jul. 08, 2014
Filed:
Jan. 23, 2012
Joe Mihelich, Folsom, CA (US);
Son Pham, San Jose, CA (US);
Jun LI, San Jose, CA (US);
Fortinet, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
Methods and systems for balancing load among firewall security devices are provided. According to one embodiment, a switch maintains a session table the session entries of which represent established traffic sessions between a source and a destination and form an association between the traffic session and a particular firewall security device (FSD). Responsive to receiving a packet of a first traffic session on a first port, a determination is made whether there exists a matching session entry. Responsive to a negative determination, a load balancing function is performed to select an FSD with which to associate the first traffic session and a corresponding reverse second traffic session. After processing of the packet by the selected FSD and receipt of the packet at a second port, a session entry is installed within the session table for the second traffic session and which associates the selected FSD with the second traffic session.