METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR SEAMLESS SCTP SERVER FAILOVER BETWEEN SCTP SERVERS RUNNING ON DIFFERENT MACHINES

摘要

A Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) cluster of multiple SCTP servers is defined such that some servers are assigned Active Role where others are assigned Standby Role ensuring uninterrupted SCTP connections between the SCTP cluster and SCTP clients. The Standby Servers use the same Internet Protocol (IP) address(es) on the SCTP bound interfaces as their assigned Active Server. The Active Servers are communicating to the SCTP clients where the Standby Servers are communicating to their assigned Active SCTP Server using a separate backchannel TCP connection. The Standby Server receives regular updates over the backchannel connection from the Active Server. These updates ensure that the Standby Server could locally simulate SCTP negotiations and create SCTP associations as if the SCTP negotiations. The Standby Servers are synchronized and ready in case of ah Active Server failure to continue SCTP communications. This handover does not involve any subsequent action from the SCTP clients so that the SCTP clients are unaware a handover occurred.