Adaptive load balancing between ECMP or LAG port group members

1. A method of distributing packet data traffic among a plurality of outgoing packet links in a packet network device, the method comprising:

for an N-member packet link group among which packet traffic is distributed, N>1, forming an interface structure containing more than N members;

associating each member of the packet link group with one or more members of the interface structure;

receiving statistics indicative of an outgoing traffic load on each member of the packet link group and manipulating the association between the packet link group members and the interface structure members based at least in part on the received statistics;

for an incoming packet, using packet-related information to select a member of the interface structure; and

selecting a member of the packet link group for outgoing transmission of the incoming packet, selection of the member comprising selecting the member of the packet link group currently associated with the selected member of the interface structure.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the packet link group comprises a group of links among which packet traffic is distributed according to an equal-cost multipath routing algorithm.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the group of links comprises at least one logical aggregation of multiple physical links.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the packet link group comprises a group of physical links that are logically aggregated.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising comparing the statistics to a traffic imbalance profile to determine whether manipulation of the association is warranted.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the traffic imbalance profile triggers manipulation of the association when statistics indicative of the outgoing traffic load on at least one of the packet link group members show that the at least one member has a traffic load above a threshold.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the threshold is based on an average load for the packet link group.

8. The method of claim 5 , wherein the traffic imbalance profile triggers manipulation of the association when statistics of the outgoing traffic load on each member show that the load difference between at least two of the packet link group members exceeds a threshold.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein using packet-related information to select a member of the interface structure comprises submitting the packet-related information to a hashing procedure to select a member of the interface structure.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the interface structure comprises M interface structure groups, each having N members, wherein associating each member of the packet link group with one or more members of the interface structure comprises associating the members of the packet link group in a one-to-one correspondence with the interface structure members in each interface structure group, but forming the association in a different order in at least two of the interface structure groups.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising receiving statistics indicative of the outgoing traffic load on each member of the packet link group, and wherein forming the association in a different order in at least two of the interface structure groups comprises:

determining the packet link group member with the highest traffic load and the packet link group member with the lowest traffic load;

for a first one of the interface structure groups, determining a first location within the interface structure group of the association with the packet link group member with the highest traffic load and a second location within the interface structure group of the association with the packet link group member with the lowest traffic load; and

for a second one of the interface structure groups, having locations corresponding to those in the first one of the interface structure groups, reversing the association of the first location with the association of the second location.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein forming the association in a different order in at least two of the interface structure groups further comprises:

with N greater than or equal to 4, determining the packet link group member with the second highest traffic load and the packet link group member with the second lowest traffic load;

for the first one of the interface structure groups, determining a third location within the interface structure group of the association with the packet link group member with the second highest traffic load and a fourth location within the interface structure group of the association with the packet link group member with the second lowest traffic load; and

for the second one of the interface structure groups, reversing the association of the third location with the association of the fourth location.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein at least one of the interface structure groups contains members associating with a different subset of the packet link group members than the subset of packet link group members associating with a second one of the interface structure groups.

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein the hashing procedure selects one of the interface structure groups and then selects one of the interface structure group members in the selected interface structure group.

15. The method of claim 10 , further comprising storing multiple forwarding entries, each specifying the packet link group as an outgoing target for packets associated with that forwarding entry, associating at least one of the multiple forwarding entries with a first one of the M interface structure groups, and associating at least one other one of the multiple forwarding entries with a second one of the M interface structure groups.

16. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving statistics indicative of the outgoing traffic load on each member of the interface, and manipulating the association between the packet link group members and the interface structure members in a manner that better balances outgoing traffic load across the packet link group members as compared to the outgoing traffic load across the packet link group members prior to the manipulation.

17. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving statistics indicative of the outgoing traffic load on each member of the packet link group, indicating that an imbalance exists between the traffic loads on a first packet link group member and a second packet link group member, and reassociating at least one interface structure member, previously associated with the first packet link group member, with the second packet link group member.

18. A packet network device comprising:

a plurality of outgoing packet data ports;

an interface structure having a plurality of members, each interface structure member associated with one of the packet data ports, the interface structure including at least two members associated with the same packet data port and at least two members associated with different packet data ports;

a forwarding table including at least one entry pointing to the interface structure;

a statistics receiving facility, the statistics receiving facility receiving statistics indicative of the outgoing traffic load at least for outgoing packet data ports that are members of the interface structure;

an interface structure manipulation facility, the manipulation facility adjusting the associations between interface structure members and packet data ports based at least in part on the statistics received by the statistics receiving facility; and

an outgoing port selector that, when an incoming packet triggers a forwarding table entry pointing to the interface structure, uses information related to the incoming packet to select a member of the current interface structure and a corresponding outgoing packet data port.