Stateful Load Balancing in Stateless IP Networks

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Solution Overview

Problem

Stateless IP networks face limitations such as inhibiting user mobility, session layer load balancing, and routing between private or overlapping networks, which are addressed but introduce inefficiencies like additional overhead and bandwidth usage through tunneling protocols.

Innovation Solution

Implementing an augmented IP router (AIPR) that uses state information to ensure subsequent packets of a session follow the same path as the lead packet, maintaining an ordered path and enabling stateful load balancing by storing session information and modifying lead packets to identify subsequent packets within the network.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If tunneling protocols are used to address statelessness limitations, then user mobility and session load balancing are enabled, but additional overhead and bandwidth usage are introduced

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveuser mobility and session load balancing capabilityVSAvoidbandwidth usage and network overhead

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSLoss of energy

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces an intermediary component (session manager or gateway) that maintains session state information and manages packet routing. This intermediary enables stateful load balancing and user mobility without requiring full tunneling protocols, thereby reducing the overhead and bandwidth consumption while still providing the necessary session management capabilities.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent implements preliminary session establishment and state registration before actual data transmission. By pre-configuring session information, routing paths, and load balancing parameters in advance, the system avoids the need for continuous tunneling overhead during data transfer, thus reducing bandwidth usage while maintaining adaptability.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

2Stability of the object's composition

If stateful routing is implemented to ensure packets follow the same path, then session consistency is improved, but network device complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesession packet path consistencyVSAvoidnetwork device state management complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Stability of the object's compositionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the network into domains with different levels of statefulness. Core network devices maintain simple stateless forwarding, while edge devices or session managers handle stateful session management. This segmentation allows session consistency to be maintained without requiring all network devices to become complex stateful entities.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces an intermediary session manager that handles the complex state management tasks. This intermediary maintains session state information and provides simple routing instructions to regular network devices, thereby ensuring packet path consistency without increasing the complexity of the core network forwarding infrastructure.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

3Adaptability or versatility

If tunneling protocols are used to enable private network routing, then routing between private or overlapping networks is achieved, but additional CPU cycles per packet are required

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveprivate network routing capabilityVSAvoidpacket processing throughput

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements preliminary routing configuration and address translation setup before packet transmission. By pre-computing routing paths and translating addresses in advance, the system avoids the need for complex per-packet tunneling processing, thus maintaining private network routing capability while improving packet processing throughput.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent extracts the complex tunneling and address translation functions from the fast packet forwarding path and places them in a separate session management plane. This allows the data plane to maintain high-speed simple forwarding while the control plane handles the complex routing logic, thereby achieving private network routing without significantly impacting packet processing throughput.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Data Source

PatentEP3231160B1Stateful load balancing in a stateless network

Publication Date: 2021.01.06 A G TECHNOLOGY CORP

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AI summary

A packet routing method for directing packets of a session in an IP network causes an intermediate node to obtain a lead packet of a plurality of packets in a given session. The intermediate node has an electronic interface in communication with the IP network and obtains the lead packet through that same interface. The method maintains, in a routing database, state information relating to a plurality of sessions in the IP network. Each session includes a single stateful session path formed by an ordered plurality of nodes in the IP network, and the state information includes information about the ordered plurality of nodes in the sessions. The method further accesses the routing database to determine the state of a plurality of sessions, and forms a stateful given path for packets of the given session across the IP network as a function of the state information in the routing database.