Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer readable media for performing stateless load balancing of network traffic flows are disclosed. According to one aspect, the subject matter described herein includes a method for performing stateless load balancing of network traffic flows. The method occurs at a layer 3 packet forwarding and layer 2 switching device. The method includes responding to address resolution protocol (ARP) requests from clients, the ARP requests including a virtual IP (VIP) address shared by the device and a plurality of servers coupled to the device, with the medium access control (MAC) address of the device. The method also includes receiving, from the clients, packets addressed to the VIP address and having the MAC address of the device. The method further includes load sharing the packets among the servers using a layer 3 forwarding operation that appears to the clients as a layer 2 switching operation.

Abstract: The subject matter described herein includes methods and systems for providing accidental stack join protection. According to one embodiment, a method includes connecting stacking ports of a first switch that is a member of a first stack and a second switch that is a member of a second stack and thereby joining the first and second stacks. The configurations of the first stack and of the second stack are detected and it is determined whether the detected configurations indicate a configuration mismatch between the first and second stacks. In response to determining that the detected configurations relate to a mismatch, the automatic joining of the first and second stacks is inhibited and the first and second stacks are allowed to continue switching traffic with their existing configurations.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer readable media for performing stateless load balancing of network traffic flows are disclosed. According to one aspect, the subject matter described herein includes a method for performing stateless load balancing of network traffic flows. The method occurs at a layer 3 packet forwarding and layer 2 switching device. The method includes responding to address resolution protocol (ARP) requests from clients, the ARP requests including a virtual IP (VIP) address shared by the device and a plurality of servers coupled to the device, with the medium access control (MAC) address of the device. The method also includes receiving, from the clients, packets addressed to the VIP address and having the MAC address of the device. The method further includes load sharing the packets among the servers using a layer 3 forwarding operation that appears to the clients as a layer 2 switching operation.

Abstract: The subject matter described herein includes methods and systems for providing accidental stack join protection. According to one embodiment, a method includes connecting stacking ports of a first switch that is a member of a first stack and a second switch that is a member of a second stack and thereby joining the first and second stacks. The configurations of the first stack and of the second stack are detected and it is determined whether the detected configurations indicate a configuration mismatch between the first and second stacks. In response to determining that the detected configurations relate to a mismatch, the automatic joining of the first and second stacks is inhibited and the first and second stacks are allowed to continue switching traffic with their existing configurations.

Abstract: Methods and systems for efficiently delivering data to multiple destinations in a computer network are disclosed. Data to be delivered to multiple destinations is stored in memory. The stored data is divided into blocks. Checksums are pre-calculated for each block. Pre-calculated checksums are used to calculate the data checksums for data to be inserted in each packet to be delivered to data destinations.