Search

EP-4738785-A1 - SOURCE LOAD BALANCING OF DATA PACKETS

EP4738785A1EP 4738785 A1EP4738785 A1EP 4738785A1EP-4738785-A1

Abstract

Disclosed is a method for load balancing at the source side rather than the destination side of a network. Destination networks can communicate with source load balancers by transmitting network protocol advertisements such as border gateway protocol (BGP) advertisements. The advertisements can communicate prefixes representing available subnets for load balancing purposes. The source load balancer would then load balance and transmit the network traffic along a path made up at least in part by the prefixes advertised by the network.

Inventors

  • GARG, Rashmi
  • LANGEMAK, Jon
  • TOLLET, JEROME
  • GANNE, Benoit
  • DE KERHOR, Arthur

Assignees

  • Cisco Technology, Inc.

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20241118

Claims (15)

  1. A method comprising: receiving, at a load balancer at a source, an advertisement from a network device at a destination, the advertisement including a prefix representing an available subnet at the destination; determining, by the load balancer at the source, a distribution of network traffic from the source; and transmitting, by the load balancer at the source, the network traffic to the destination.
  2. The method of claim 1, wherein the advertisement is a border gateway protocol (BGP) advertisement.
  3. The method of claim 1 or 2, further comprising receiving, from the network device at the destination, an indication that IP addresses within the available subnet are capable of receiving the network traffic from the source.
  4. The method of any of claims 1 to 3, further comprising receiving a second advertisement from the network device, the second advertisement advertising a different pool of IP addresses as the available subnet based on network analysis or user input at the network device at the destination.
  5. The method of any of claims 1 to 4, further comprising: determining, by the load balancer at the source, that the available subnet includes a destination IP address of the network traffic, wherein transmitting the network traffic includes transmitting the network traffic to the available subnet including the destination IP address.
  6. The method of any of claims 1 to 5, wherein transmitting, by the load balancer at the source, the network traffic to the destination includes: transmitting, to a gateway router of the available subnet, the network traffic; providing a destination IP address to the gateway router of the available subnet to permit the gateway router to determine whether the destination IP address is included within IP addresses of the available subnet; and providing, within the network traffic, an indication to transmit the network traffic to the destination IP address if the destination IP address is within the available subnet, or transmit the network traffic to a second subnet if the destination IP address is not within the available subnet.
  7. The method of any of claims 1 to 6, wherein the destination is at least one of a data center, a server, a cloud computing environment, a virtual machine, a network storage device, a router, a switch, or a firewall.
  8. A load balancing apparatus comprising: means for receiving, at a source, an advertisement from a network device at a destination, the advertisement including a prefix representing an available subnet at the destination; means for determining, at the source, a distribution of network traffic from the source; and means for transmitting, at the source, the network traffic to the destination.
  9. The load balancing apparatus of claim 8, wherein the advertisement is a BGP advertisement.
  10. The load balancing apparatus of claim 8 or 9, further comprising means for receiving, from the network device at the destination, an indication that IP addresses within the available subnet are capable of receiving the network traffic from the source.
  11. The load balancing apparatus of any of claims 8 to 10, further comprising means for receiving a second advertisement from the network device, the second advertisement advertising a different pool of IP addresses as the available subnet based on network analysis or user input at the network device at the destination.
  12. The load balancing apparatus of any of claims 8 to 11, further comprising: means for determining, at the source, that the available subnet includes a destination IP address of the network traffic, wherein means for transmitting the network traffic includes means for transmitting the network traffic to the available subnet including the destination IP address.
  13. The load balancing apparatus of any of claims 8 to 12, wherein the means for transmitting the network traffic to the destination includes: means for transmitting, to a gateway router of the available subnet, the network traffic; means for providing a destination IP address to the gateway router of the available subnet to permit the gateway router to determine whether the network traffic includes the destination IP address included within IP addresses of the available subnet; and means for providing, within the network traffic, an indication to transmit the network traffic to the destination IP address if the destination IP address is within the available subnet, or transmit the network traffic to a second subnet if the destination IP address is not within the available subnet.
  14. The load balancing apparatus of any of claims 8 to 13, wherein the destination is at least one of a data center, a server, a cloud computing environment, a virtual machine, a network storage device, a router, a switch, or a firewall.
  15. A computer program, computer program product or computer readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to carry out the steps of the method of any of claims 1 to 7.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates to network communication, and in particular to load balancing data packets within a network. BACKGROUND Load balancing is a complex problem in networking. Load balancing involves distributing network traffic across multiple servers or resources to prevent a single server from becoming overwhelmed. This optimizes performance, improves response times, and increases reliability and availability of applications or services. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS In order to describe the manner in which the above-recited and other advantages and features of the disclosure can be obtained, a more particular description of the principles briefly described above will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof which are illustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict only exemplary embodiments of the disclosure and are not therefore to be considered to be limiting of its scope, the principles herein are described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings in which: FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a high-level network architecture in accordance with at least some embodiments of the present technology.FIG. 2 illustrates an example communication network including one or more autonomous systems (ASes) in accordance with at least some embodiments of the present technology.FIG. 3 illustrates a schematic diagram conceptually illustrating inter-data center transmission of data packets in accordance with at least some embodiments of the present technology.FIG. 4 illustrates a routine for load balancing network traffic at a source location in accordance with at least some embodiments of the present technology.FIG. 5 shows an example of a system for implementing certain aspects of the present technology. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS Various embodiments of the disclosure are discussed in detail below. While specific implementations are discussed, it should be understood that this is done for illustration purposes only. A person skilled in the relevant art will recognize that other components and configurations may be used without parting from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Thus, the following description and drawings are illustrative and are not to be construed as limiting. Numerous specific details are described to provide a thorough understanding of the disclosure. However, in certain instances, well-known or conventional details are not described in order to avoid obscuring the description. References to one or an embodiment in the present disclosure can be references to the same embodiment or any embodiment; and such references mean at least one of the embodiments. Reference to "one embodiment" or "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the disclosure. The appearances of the phrase "in one embodiment" in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodiments mutually exclusive of other embodiments. Moreover, various features are described which may be exhibited by some embodiments and not by others. A used herein the term "configured" shall be considered to interchangeably be used to refer to configured and configurable, unless the term "configurable" is explicitly used to distinguish from "configured". The proper understanding of the term will be apparent to persons of ordinary skill in the art in the context in which the term is used. The terms used in this specification generally have their ordinary meanings in the art, within the context of the disclosure, and in the specific context where each term is used. Alternative language and synonyms may be used for any one or more of the terms discussed herein, and no special significance should be placed upon whether or not a term is elaborated or discussed herein. In some cases, synonyms for certain terms are provided. A recital of one or more synonyms does not exclude the use of other synonyms. The use of examples anywhere in this specification including examples of any terms discussed herein is illustrative only and is not intended to further limit the scope and meaning of the disclosure or of any example term. Likewise, the disclosure is not limited to various embodiments given in this specification. Without intent to limit the scope of the disclosure, examples of instruments, apparatus, methods and their related results according to the embodiments of the present disclosure are given below. Note that titles or subtitles may be used in the examples for convenience of a reader, which in no way should limit the scope of the disclosure. Unless otherwise defined, technical and scientific terms used herein have the meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to whic