GigaSMART Load Balancing
GigaSMART Enhanced Load Balancing require a separate license. Stateless Load Balancing is included with Base licenses. Stateful Load Balancing for GTP is included with the GTP Filtering & Correlation license. Stateful Load Balancing for ASF is included with the Application Session Filtering (ASF) license. Stateful Load Balancing for tunnel is included with the Advanced Tunneling license ( GigaVUE‑HC2, and GigaVUE‑HC3), and Tunneling license (GigaVUE‑HC1)
Load balancing distributes GigaSMART outgoing traffic to multiple tool ports or multiple tunnel endpoint destinations. In this way, traffic processed by GigaSMART is shared.
Stateful load balancing distributes GigaSMART processed traffic to multiple tool ports or tunnel endpoints based on GigaSMART application-specific flow sessions. Stateless load balancing distributes GigaSMART processed traffic to multiple tool ports or tunnel endpoints based on hash values generated from predefined protocol fields in the packet.
Load balancing operations to tool ports can be assigned to GigaSMART groups consisting of multiple engine ports. Refer to Groups of GigaSMART Engine Ports for details.
Stateful load balancing distributes GigaSMART processed traffic to multiple tool ports or tunnel endpoints based on GigaSMART application-specific flow sessions.
With stateful load balancing, packets belonging to the same flow session maintained by GigaSMART applications are forwarded to the same tool port or tunnel endpoint within a port group.
Use the GigaSMART Operations (GSOP) page to configure load balancing. Specify one stateful application within a group of GigaSMART operations and specify a load balancing metric.
The following are the supported stateful applications:
Application |
Reference |
GTP | GigaSMART GTP Correlation |
Application Session Filtering (ASF) | GigaSMART Application Session Filtering (ASF) and Buffer ASF |
Tunnel | GigaSMART Layer 2 GRE Tunnel Encapsulation/Decapsulation |
SIP | GigaSMART SIP/RTP Correlation |
Diameter | GigaSMART Diameter S6a Correlation |
To select Stateful Load Balancing, do the following:
1. | From the device view, select GigaSMART > GigaSMART Operations (GSOP), and then click New. |
2. | Specify an alias in the Alias field. |
3. | Click in the GigaSMART Group field and select a GigaSMART Group. |
4. | Click in the GigaSMART Operations (GSOP) field and select Load Balancing from the drop-down list. |
5. | Select Stateful. |
6. | For Type, select one stateful application within a group of GigaSMART operations. |
GTP, ASF, Tunnel, SIP and Diameter are the supported stateful applications.
7. | Specify a load balancing metric. For example, Hashing as shown in the following figure. |
8. | Click Ok. |
For details on stateful load balancing, refer to the following sections:
The load balancing metrics available for stateful load balancing are described in the following table.
For weighted metrics, such as Weighted Least Bandwidth, you can either define a weight for each port such as 5,10, 25, 50, or you can use link speed: 1 for 1Gb, 10 for 10Gb, 40 for 40Gb, 100 for 100Gb. Use the Port Groups configuration page to select weight and use the Port configuration page to select link speed.
Note: Only the traffic from the stateful application (for example, GTP, ASF, or tunnel) is used to perform load balancing. Other traffic in the map that does not match the application's filter rule is excluded.
Metric |
Description |
Least Bandwidth |
A tool port is selected from a port group based on the least bits per second load to the port. To compensate for bursty traffic, the history of the last 10 second bandwidth is considered on the load balancing decision. This metric is not supported for tunnel. |
Weighted Least Bandwidth |
A tool port is selected from a port group based on the least bits per second load to the port, as described under Least Bandwidth. This metric is not supported for tunnel. If this metric is selected, link speed is considered in addition to the bandwidth of the port. If this metric is not selected, the weight configured for each port in the port group is considered in addition to the bandwidth of the port. |
Least Packet Rate |
A tool port is selected from a port group based on Least Packet Rate. To compensate for bursty traffic, the history of the last 10 second packet count is considered on the load balancing decision. |
Weighted Least Packet Rate |
A tool port is selected from a port group based on Least Packet Rate, as described under Least Packet Rate. With Weighted Least Packet Rate, if a port has a higher weight, it will be sent more traffic. If this metric is selected, link speed is considered with packet rate. If this metric is not selected, the weight configured for each port in the port group is considered with packet rate. |
Round Robin |
A tool port is selected from a port group based on round robin. |
Weighted Round Robin |
A tool port is selected from a port group based on least packet rate, as described under Round Robin. If this metric is selected, link speed is considered with Round Robin. If this metric is not selected, the weight configured for each port in the port group is considered with Round Robin. |
Least Connection |
A tool port is selected from a port group based on the current Least Connection assigned to each tool port. The port with the least number of connections assigned is selected. Note: The meaning of connection is defined by the application. |
Weighted Least Connection |
A tool port is selected from a port group based on the current Least Connection assigned to each tool port, as described under Least Connection. If this metric is selected, link speed is considered with Least Connection. If this metric is not selected, the weight configured for each port in the port group is considered with Least Connection. Note: The meaning of connection is defined by the application. |
Least Cumulative Traffic |
A tool port is selected from a port group based on the least total bytes sent to each tool port. The port with the least number of connections assigned is selected. Note: The meaning of connection is defined by the application. |
Weighted Least Cumulative Traffic |
A tool port is selected from a port group based on the least total bytes sent to each tool port, as described under Least Cumulative Traffic. If this metric is selected, link speed is considered with least cumulative traffic. If this metric is not selected, the weight configured for each port in the port group is considered with Least Cumulative Traffic. |
Hashing |
A tool port is selected from a port list based on hashing of data provided by the GSOP application, which is normally extracted from the packet. The values for hashing key are: IMSI GTP key (imsi), IMEI GTP key (imei), and MSISDN GTP key (msisdn). The hashing key only applies to the GTP stateful application. Refer to Hashing Key Support on page 672 for details. |
The following table describes the support for GTP hashing key.
GTP Key |
Hashing |
(Weighted) Least Bandwidth |
(Weighted) Least Packet Rate |
(Weighted) Least Round Robin |
(Weighted) Least Connection |
(Weighted) Least Cumulative Traffic |
IMSI |
Supported |
Supported |
Supported |
Supported |
Supported |
Supported |
IMEI |
Supported |
Not Supported |
Not Supported |
Not Supported |
Not Supported |
Not Supported |
MSISDN |
Supported |
Not Supported |
Not Supported |
Not Supported |
Not Supported |
Not Supported |
Use the Port Group page to specify the list of tool ports or tunnel endpoints for stateful load balancing and to enable load balancing in a port group.
To enable load balancing in a port group, do the following:
1. | Select Ports > Port Groups > All Port Groups. |
2. | Click New. |
3. | In the Alias filed, enter an alias. For example, load-balgrp. |
4. | Enable Load Balancing. |
5. | Select the port type. |
6. | Define the weights for each of the ports. |
Note: Weight determines the traffic sent to a particular port. The weight of the individual ports must be less than 100. The combined value of the ports can be greater than 100, as the actual load balancing ratio is computed with individual values divided by the combined value
7. | Click OK to save the configuration. |
NOTES:
Up to 50 load balancing port groups are supported, with a maximum of 16 ports for each group. |
Ports within port groups must be on the same chassis. |
Ports within port groups can have different rates. |
Refer to the following examples:
For an example of load balancing on L2GRE encapsulation tunnel, refer to GigaSMART Layer 2 GRE Tunnel Encapsulation/Decapsulation.
Example 1 configures stateful load balancing of GigaSMART GTP traffic among tool ports 1/1/x6, 1/1/x7, 1/2/x3, and 1/2/x4 based on bandwidth with different weights for each port. The same subscriber (imsi) traffic will be forwarded to the same tool port. GTP-c packets are replicated to all tool ports.
Task |
Description |
UI Steps |
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Create a port group, specify the tool ports for load balancing, and weights for each tool port. |
weight 1/1/x6 5 weight 1/1/x7 10 weight 1/2/x3 20 weight 1/2/x4 10
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Create a GigaSMART group and specify a port and enable replicate GTP-c packets to all tool ports in the load balancing port group. |
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Create a GSOP, including GTP application and load balancing metric. |
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Create a virtual port and associate it with the GigaSMART group. |
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Create an ingress (first level) map. Note the following:
Note: In the rules, 2123 is GTP-c traffic and 2152 is GTP-u traffic. |
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Create a second level map. |
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Example 2 configures stateful load balancing of GigaSMART GTP traffic among tool ports 1/1/x6, 1/1/x7, 1/2/x3, and 1/2/x4 based on hashing of the imei value. The same device ID (imei) traffic will be forwarded to the same tool port. GTP-c packets are replicated to all tool ports.
Task |
Description |
Steps |
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Create a port group and specify the tool ports for load balancing. |
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Create a GigaSMART group and specify ports and enable replicate GTP-c packets to all tool ports in the load balancing port group. |
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Create a GSOP, including GTP application and load balancing metric. |
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Create a virtual port and associate it with the GigaSMART group. |
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Create an ingress (first level) map. Note the following:
Note: In the rules, 2123 is GTP-c traffic and 2152 is GTP-u traffic. |
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Create a second level map. |
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Stateless load balancing distributes GigaSMART processed traffic to multiple tools based on predefined protocol fields in the packet.
Unlike stateful load balancing, stateless load balancing can be configured together with most other GigaSMART operations or as a separate GigaSMART operation to provide more flexible traffic distribution options over what is available from a tool GigaStream. Packets processed by stateless load balancing are forwarded to a tool port within a port group.
Stateless load balancing supports packets with MPLS encapsulation and IEEE 802.1 Q-in-Q VLAN tags.
To select stateless load balancing, do the following:
1. | From the device view, select GigaSMART > GigaSMART Operations (GSOP) GigaSMART Operation, and then click New. |
2. | Type an alias in the Alias field. |
3. | From the GigaSMART Groups drop-down list, select a GigaSMART group. |
4. | From the GigaSMART Operations (GSOP) drop-down list, select Load Balancing. |
5. | Configure Load Balancing: |
Select Stateless |
Specify a load balancing metric. For example, IP Only as shown in the following figure. |
6. | Click Save. |
For details on stateless load balancing, refer to the following sections:
The load balancing metrics available for stateless load balancing are described in the following table.
A tool port is selected from a port list based on hashing. The fields to be hashed are described in the table.
To specify a metric for stateless load balancing:
1. | From the device view, select GigaSMART > GigaSMART Operations (GSOP) > GigaSMART Operation. |
2. | Click New to create a new GigaSMART Operation or Edit to modify an existing one. |
3. | Select Load Balancing from the GigaSMART Operations (GSOP) drop-down list and configure load balancing as follows. |
a. | Select Stateless |
b. | Select one of the hashing metrics: IP Only, IP & PORT, Five Tuple, or GTPU-TEID. |
Table 1: Stateless Load Balancing Metrics describes each of the metrics.
4. | Click Save. |
Metric |
Description |
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IP Only |
The source IP and destination IP addresses. |
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IP & Port |
The source IP and destination IP addresses, and Layer 4 source port and destination port numbers. |
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Five Tuple |
The source IP and destination IP addresses, source port and destination port numbers, and protocol field in the IP header. |
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GTPU-TEID |
The GTP-u tunnel identifier (ID). Note: There is no inner or outer field location for |
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outer |
The first occurrence of header or field. For example, IP Only outer is the first IP header in the packet, which could be IPv4 or IPv6. |
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inner |
The second occurrence of header or field. For example, ip-only inner is the second IP header in the packet. The first IP header could be IPv4 or IPv6, as follows:
The supported IP encapsulation types are: IP-in-IP, VXLAN, GTP, GRE, and ERSPAN. |
To configure stateless load balancing, specify the group of tool ports and enable load balancing in a port group.
1. | Select Ports > Port Groups > All Port Groups. |
2. | Click New. |
3. | Type an alias in the Alias field. For example, load-balgrp. |
4. | Enable Load Balancing. |
5. | Use the Ports field to select the ports for this port group. |
6. | Define the weight for each of the ports used. |
Note: Weight determines the traffic sent to a particular port. The weight of the individual ports must be less than 100. The combined value of the ports can be greater than 100, as the actual load balancing ratio is computed with individual values divided by the combined value
7. | Click OK to save the configuration. |
Notes:
Up to 50 load balancing port groups are supported, with a maximum of 16 ports for each group. |
Ports within port groups must be on the same chassis. |
Ports within port groups can have different rates. |
Refer to the following examples:
Example 1: GigaSMART Stateless Load Balancing |
Example 2: GigaSMART Stateless Load Balancing |
Example 3: GigaSMART Stateless Load Balancing |
For an example of load balancing on L2GRE encapsulation tunnel, refer to GigaSMART Layer 2 GRE Tunnel Encapsulation/Decapsulation.
Example 1 configures stateless load balancing of traffic among tool ports 1/1/x6, 1/1/x7, 1/2/x3, and 1/2/x4 after slicing the packet to an offset of 70 bytes.
Task |
Description |
Steps |
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Create a port group and specify the tool ports for load balancing. |
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Configure a GigaSMART group and associate it with GigaSMART engine ports. |
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Create a GSOP, with load balancing. |
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Create a first level map. Note the following:
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Example 2 configures stateless load balancing of GTP traffic among tool ports 1/1/x6, 1/1/x7, 1/2/x3, and 1/2/x4. Data packets with the same GTP-u tunnel ID will be forwarded to the same tool port.
Task |
Description |
Steps |
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Create a port group and specify the tool ports for load balancing. |
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Configure a GigaSMART group and associate it with GigaSMART engine ports. |
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Create a GSOP, including load balancing metric. |
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Create first level maps. Note the following:
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Create the first map:
Create the second map:
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Example 3 configures stateless load balancing of HTTP on GTP traffic among tool ports 1/1/x6, 1/1/x7, 1/2/x3, and 1/2/x4. Data packets with the same inner IP will be forwarded to the same tool port.
Task |
Description |
Steps |
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Create a port group and specify the tool ports for load balancing. |
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Configure a GigaSMART group and associate it with GigaSMART engine ports. |
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Create a GSOP, including load balancing metric. |
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Create first level maps. Note the following:
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Create the first map:
Create the second map:
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Create the second level map. |
Create the third map:
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Required License: Enhanced Load Balancing
GigaSMART Enhanced Load Balancing supports evenly distributed traffic among multiple tool ports based on one or more user defined fields. When a tool port fails, the traffic is redistributed just for that tool port to other member tool ports. When the failed tool port recovers, the traffic that was redistributed is restored to the recovered tool port. Traffic across other member tool ports remain undisturbed during this process.
Non GTP traffic and (subsequent) fragmented packets to be load balanced to all tool ports based on outer IP. |
Rebalance traffic when the following occurs: |
Tool port goes up or down |
Tool port group membership changes |
When a tool port fails redistribute the traffic just for that tool port and when the failed tool port recovers restore traffic just for that tool port |
GigaSMART provides configuration support for a new enhanced load balancing (enhanced-lb) app. The enhanced-lb app allows users to define the fields used for load balancing.
Enhanced Load Balancing supports the following hashing metrics:
- inner IP address
- outer IP address
- inner L4 port
- outer L4 port
- GPRS Tunnel Endpoint Identifier (TEID)
To configure enhanced load balancing, do the following:
- Select >Physical.
- Click on a node you want apply enhance load balancing.
- Select GigaSMART>Enhanced Load Balancing. The enhance load balance screen displays.
- Click New. The enhanced load balancing screen appears.
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Enter an Alias.
6. | Select the Hash Field Name. The following options are available: |
- IP
- L4 Port
- GTP-U TEID
7. | Select Hash Field Location. Options: |
- inner
- outer
Note: Use the “+” or “-” icons to add and delete hash fields.
Hash Field Name |
Hash Field Location |
IP |
Inner |
IP |
Outer |
L4 Port |
Outer |
L4 Port |
Inner |
GTP-U TEID |
None |
You can configure up to five (5) different hash fields and location.
8. | Click OK. |
Note: To view details about the enhanced load balancing parameters, click the Alias. The detail/edit dialog box displays.
1. | Select > Physical. |
2. | Select GigaSMART > GSOP. |
3. | Click New. |
4. | Enter Alias. |
5. | Select a GSOP Group. |
6. | Select a GSOP type: Load Balancing. |
7. | Select GSOP type: Enhance load balancing. The Load Balancing dialog appears. |
8. | Select Enhanced. |
9. | Select an Enhanced Load Balance Alias from the drop-down. This is the enhanced load balance you previously created. |
10. | Click OK. The enhanced load balance GSOP is now available on the GSOP page. |