# IPS Cluster load balancing

In a load-balanced cluster, traffic is dynamically balanced between the nodes.

The recommended way to cluster the nodes in an IPS Cluster is load-balanced clustering, where traffic is balanced between the nodes dynamically. Load-balanced clustering provides both fault tolerance and performance benefits.

When load-balanced clustering is used, the traffic arriving at the IPS Cluster is balanced across the nodes with a load-balancing filter. This filtering process distributes packets between the IPS Cluster nodes and tracks packet distribution. The IPS Cluster determines the packet ownership of the nodes by comparing the incoming packet with node-specific values based on the packet headers.

The IPS Cluster tracks which node is handling each ongoing connection. As a result, the same node can handle all packets that are part of a given connection. Some protocols use multiple connections, which are sometimes handled by different nodes, but this usually does not affect the processing of the traffic.