Loadbalancer Session Tracking via IP Address Correlation
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
In loadbalancing environments, the increasing number of end users and network traffic leads to overburdening of components, resulting in decreased throughput, bandwidth limitations, and potential failures due to reliance on a single central node.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a system that tracks end users based on their IP addresses, reducing the loadbalancer's responsibilities to only inspect source and destination IP addresses, thereby simplifying operations and conserving resources, and allowing for more scalable and efficient communication.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If the loadbalancer tracks end user sessions on a per-flow basis, then the tracking accuracy is improved, but the device complexity and processing burden increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the flow tracking function from the loadbalancer and relocates it to the gateway. The loadbalancer only performs simple IP address-based session assignment, while the gateway maintains the complex flow tracking information in its session table, thereby reducing the loadbalancer's complexity while preserving tracking accuracy where needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the session tracking functionality into two parts: (1) loadbalancer performs lightweight IP address-based session assignment, and (2) gateway performs detailed flow tracking using source IP, destination IP, and port information. This segmentation allows each component to operate at its optimal complexity level.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the loadbalancer maintains per-flow information, then the session management capability is improved, but the memory resources are consumed excessively
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the per-flow information storage function from the loadbalancer's memory and relocates it to the gateway's session table. The loadbalancer only stores minimal session assignment mappings, while the gateway maintains comprehensive flow information including source IP, destination IP, ports, and protocol details, thereby optimizing memory resource allocation.
3Measurement precision
If the loadbalancer performs intensive CPU cycles for flow tracking, then the tracking precision is improved, but the productivity of the system decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the CPU-intensive flow tracking and matching operations from the loadbalancer and relocates them to the gateway. The loadbalancer performs only simple IP address lookup and session assignment, while the gateway performs the intensive operations of matching source and destination IPs with stored flow information, thereby improving overall system throughput while maintaining tracking precision at the gateway level.
4Device complexity
If the system relies on a single central loadbalancer node, then the device complexity is reduced, but the reliability of the system decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the centralized loadbalancing function into distributed components: multiple loadbalancers can perform independent IP address-based session assignment, and multiple gateways can maintain their own session tables. This segmentation eliminates the single point of failure, as the system can tolerate individual loadbalancer or gateway failures while maintaining overall functionality and reliability.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for tracking information in a network environment is provided that includes receiving a packet included within a request that is associated with an end user and communicating the packet to a selected one of a plurality of gateways. An object may be built that correlates an internet protocol (IP) address associated with the end user to the selected gateway such that the object may be used to direct subsequently received packets associated with the end user to the selected gateway. Subsequently received packets may be directed based on end-user IP address information included in the subsequently received packets.