US Patent 9331946 Method and apparatus to distribute data center network traffic

Exemplary embodiments provide a technique to improve the system availability of the systems that have multiple links and are connected to a network fabric. In one embodiment, a switch comprises: a memory storing a first logical group which has a first plurality of IP addresses of a first plurality of ports and is assigned to a first ID (identifier), and a second logical group which has a second plurality of IP addresses of a second plurality of ports and is assigned to a second ID; and a controller controlling to cause a logical path of the first logical group to use a first physical path which is different from a second physical path to be used by a logical path of the second logical group, based on the first ID and the second ID.