Inventors:
Nagaraj Bagepalli - San Jose CA, US
Prashant Gandhi - San Jose CA, US
Abhijit Patra - San Jose CA, US
Kirti Prabhu - San Jose CA, US
Anant Thakar - Cupertino CA, US
Assignee:
Cisco Technology, Inc. - San Jose CA
International Classification:
G06F 15/16
Abstract:
A highly scalable application layer service appliance is described herein. According to one embodiment, a network element includes a plurality of application service modules (ASMs), each providing one or more application services to network traffic, including layer 5-7 services, a lossless data transport fabric (LDTF), a network service module (NSM) coupled to each of the ASMs over the LDTF. In response to a packet of a network transaction received from a client over for accessing a server of a datacenter, the NSM is configured to perform layer 2-5 processes on the packet, generating a data stream. The NSM is configured to route the data stream to at least two ASMs over the LDTF to allow the ASMs to perform layer 5-7 services on the packet. Other methods and apparatuses are also described.