US Patent 7102996 Method and system for scaling network traffic managers

A method and system for distributing network traffic to multiple traffic management devices. A distributor receives each packet from a network and may act as a layer 2 switch, a router, or distribute the packet to one of a group of traffic management devices. The distributor may receive packets from servers that the traffic management devices are managing communications to. When distributing packets to traffic management devices, information such as source and destination addresses may be used to determine which traffic management device each packet should be sent to. The distributor causes packets that are part of a flow to be delivered to the same traffic management device. Many configurations are possible for connecting the distributor to the traffic management devices, including connecting each traffic management device to a physical or virtual port on the distributor, connecting the traffic management devices to the distributor using a virtual local area network, and connecting the traffic management devices to a layer 2 switch.