Methods and apparatus for load balancing communication sessions

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9450877-B1
Application number	US-201313838082-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Mar 15, 2013
Priority date	Dec 18, 2012
Publication date	Sep 20, 2016
Grant date	Sep 20, 2016

Abstract

In some embodiments, an apparatus includes a gateway device that can be operatively coupled to a switch via a set of links. The gateway device can operatively couple a network node during a communication session with the switch, and can store an association between the communication session of the network node and a link such that data sent via the communication session of the network node is sent via the link. In such embodiments, the gateway device can receive, from a virtual port associated with the network node, a login request. The gateway device can send the login request to the switch to initiate a communication session between the virtual port and the switch. The gateway device can also associate the communication session of the virtual port with the link based on the communication session of the network node being associated with the link.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus, comprising:
a gateway device configured to be operatively coupled to a switch via a plurality of links, the gateway device configured to operatively couple a network node during a communication session of the network node with the switch, the gateway device storing an association between the communication session of the network node and a link from the plurality of links such that data sent via the communication session of the network node is sent via the link,
the gateway device configured to receive, from a virtual port associated with the network node, a login request, the gateway device configured to send, based on the login request from the virtual port, a login request to the switch to initiate a communication session of the virtual port between the virtual port and the switch, the gateway device configured to associate the communication session of the virtual port with the link from the plurality of links based on the communication session of the network node being associated with the link such that data sent via the communication session of the virtual port is sent via the link and such that load through the network node is balanced.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the network node is a Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) node (ENode), the virtual port is an FCoE virtual N_Port (VN_Port).

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the switch is a Fibre Channel (FC) switch.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the login request from the virtual port is a Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) fabric discovery (FDISC) request.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the communication session of the network node between the network node and the switch is initiated with a Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) fabric login (FLOGI) request.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the gateway device is configured to receive a Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) data unit from the virtual port, the gateway device configured to reformat the FCoE data unit into a Fibre Channel (FC) data unit, the gateway device configured to send the FC data unit to the switch via the link based on the communication session of the virtual port being associated with the link.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the gateway device is configured to associate the communication session of the network node with the link based on at least one of a bandwidth of each link from the plurality of links or a number of sessions associated with each link from the plurality of links.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the gateway device is configured to send the login request to the switch via the link based on the communication session of the network node being associated with the link.

9. A non-transitory processor-readable medium storing code representing instructions to be executed by a processor, the code comprising code to cause the processor to:
receive, from a network node and at a gateway device connecting the network node with a switch, a first login request, the gateway device being operatively coupled to the switch via a plurality of links;
associate a session between the network node and the switch with a link from the plurality of links based on the first login request;
receive, from a virtual port associated with the network node and at the gateway device, a second login request;
define a third login request based on the second login request;
send the third login request to the switch to initiate a session between the virtual port and the switch; and
associate the session between the virtual port and the switch with the link from the plurality of links based on the session between the network node and the switch being associated with the link such that data sent via the communication session of the virtual port is sent via the link and such that load through the network node is balanced.

10. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the code to cause the processor to associate the session between the network node and the switch with the link includes code to cause the processor to associate the session between the network node and the switch with the link based on the link having a greater amount of available bandwidth than each remaining link from the plurality of links.

11. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the code to cause the processor to associate the session between the network node and the switch with the link includes code to cause the processor to associate the session between the network node and the switch with the link based on the link being associated with a number of sessions less than a number of sessions associated with each remaining link from the plurality of links.

12. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the network node is a Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) node (ENode) and the virtual port is an FCoE virtual N_Port (VN_Port).

13. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the switch is a Fibre Channel (FC) switch.

14. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the first login request is a Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) fabric login (FLOGI) request, the third login request is an FCoE fabric discovery (FDISC) request.

15. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 9 , further comprising code to cause the processor to:
define a fourth login request based on the first login request; and
send the fourth login request to the switch to initiate the session between the network node and the switch.

16. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 9 , further comprising code to cause the processor to:
define a fourth login request based on the first login request; and
send the fourth login request to the switch to initiate the session between the network node and the switch,
the first login request is a Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) fabric login (FLOGI) request, the second login request is an FCoE fabric discovery (FDISC) request.

17. An apparatus, comprising:
a load balancing circuitry configured to be implemented in a gateway device operatively coupled to a switch via a plurality of links, the load balancing circuitry configured to associate a communication session between a network node and the switch with a link from the plurality of links such that data units of the communication session between the network node and the switch are sent between the gateway device and the switch via the link; and
a session initiation circuitry configured to be implemented in the gateway device and operatively coupled to the load balancing circuitry, the session initiation circuitry configured to receive, from a virtual port associated with the network node, a request to login to the switch, the session initiation circuitry configured to send, based on the request, a login signal to the switch such that the switch initiates a communication session between the virtual port and the switch,
the load balancing circuitry configured to receive an indication of the communication session between the virtual port and the switch, the load balancing circuitry configured to associate the communication session between the virtual port and the switch with the link from the plurality of links based on the communication session between the network node and the switch being associated with the link such that data units sent via the communication session of the virtual port are sent via the link and such that load through the network node is balanced.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the sess

Assignees

• Juniper Networks Inc

Inventors

• Kamisetty Jeevan Madhu
• Siroya Sandeep

Classifications

• H04L12/12

  Arrangements for remote connection or disconnection of substations or of equipment thereof · CPC title

• H04Q11/0005

  Switch and router aspects · CPC title

• H04L47/125 Primary

  by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering · CPC title

• H04L49/357

  Fibre channel switches · CPC title

• H04L49/351

  for local area network [LAN], e.g. Ethernet switches · CPC title