Multipath TCP Load Balancer Direct Server Return
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional load balancers often become bottlenecks in high-traffic data centers due to their inability to efficiently handle large volumes of data traffic, leading to increased bandwidth consumption and response times, and adding more load balancers is expensive and may not fully address the issue.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a multipath load balancing method using Multipath TCP (MPTCP) to establish multiple paths between client hosts and server hosts, allowing data to bypass the load balancer through direct connections, thereby reducing the load on the load balancer and improving traffic efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If conventional load balancers are used to handle all traffic between clients and servers, then load balancing functionality is maintained, but bandwidth usage on the load balancer increases and performance degrades
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the data flow into two separate paths: control plane traffic (connection establishment, load balancing decisions) continues through the load balancer, while data plane traffic (actual data transfer) is routed directly between clients and servers. This segmentation allows the load balancer to handle only essential control functions, significantly reducing its bandwidth burden while maintaining load balancing capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The load balancer acts as an intermediary that establishes initial connections and makes load balancing decisions, then facilitates direct peer-to-peer communication between clients and servers. After the intermediary (load balancer) has set up the connection, the direct path bypasses the intermediary for data transfer, combining the benefits of centralized control with efficient direct communication.
2Productivity
If more load balancers are added to handle increased traffic, then load balancing capacity increases, but system cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting control plane and data plane traffic, the patent enables a single load balancer to support many more concurrent connections than previously possible. The load balancer only processes control traffic (connection setup, health checks, load balancing decisions) while data traffic flows directly, dramatically increasing the effective capacity per load balancer and reducing the total number needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the operational parameters of the load balancer by implementing multipath TCP and establishing direct server return paths. This parameter change transforms the load balancer from a traffic-forwarding device (handling all data) to a control-plane-only device (handling only connection management), effectively multiplying its capacity without hardware additions.
3Ease of operation
If all data traffic passes through the load balancer, then connection management is simplified, but response time increases due to the additional hop
Solution Approach 1:
The load balancer serves as a temporary intermediary during connection establishment (handling authentication, load balancing decisions, and path selection), then facilitates direct communication for data transfer. This approach maintains the simplicity of centralized connection management while eliminating the performance penalty of routing all data through the load balancer.
Solution Approach 2:
The load balancer performs preliminary actions (connection establishment, load balancing decision-making, path selection) before the direct data transfer begins. By completing all necessary control plane operations in advance, the patent ensures that subsequent data transfer can proceed directly without further load balancer involvement, minimizing latency.
Data Source
AI summary
Multipath load balancing methods and apparatus that may be implemented on or by load balancers in load balanced systems. The multipath load balancing method may leverage a multipath network protocol to establish multiple paths for at least some connections between client hosts and server hosts in load balanced systems, each connection corresponding to a particular data flow between a respective client host and server host. Using the multipath load balancing method, a load balancer may operate to establish a bi-directional connection directly between a client host and a server host after first establishing a connection between the client host and server host that passes through the load balancer. Most or all of the traffic that would move between the client host and the server host via the load balancer can then be diverted onto the second, more direct connection between the client host and the server host.