ARCHITECTURE TO SUPPORT A SINGLE SYSTEM IMAGE ACROSS MULTIPLE NETWORK ACCESS SERVERS

摘要

The present invention provides a modular architecture for connecting a plurality of telephone lines (140, 142, 144) to a computer network. The invention binds a plurality of network access servers (100, 110, 120) together so that when they form a single system image to the clients dialing into the plurality of network access servers (100, 110, 120). The invention operates by providing a tunneling mechanism for communication between the network access servers (100, 110, 120). The tunneling mechanism facilitates packet re-forwarding so that a call dialed into a physical port (742) in a server (702) can be re-forwarded through a logical port (710) in another server (700). This allows a call to be routed through a physical port in a network server even if no logical port is available in the network access server (700). Packet re-forwarding also allows multilink connections through physical ports (1150, 1152) in multiple network access servers (1110, 1102) to be routed through a single logical port (1130) in a network access server (1110).