METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR LOAD BALANCING IN A NETWORK

摘要

The invention provides a load balancer (300) and a system (200) comprising a load balancer for use in a computer network and for distributing network traffic between one or more of a plurality of traffic servers (206a-c). The load balancer comprises an external receiver (305) configured to receive data packets from a client side (216) and/or a server side (218). The load balancer comprises a traffic scheduler (314) configured to determine a traffic server to which a received data packet is to be transmitted. The load balancer comprises an internal transmitter (302) configured to transmit the data packet to the determined traffic server. If the data packet is received from the client side, the traffic scheduler is configured to determine the traffic server based on a source network address for the data packet. If the data packet is received from the server side, the traffic scheduler is configured to determine the traffic server based a destination network address for the data packet.