Patent ID: 9736067
Date: 2017-08-15
CPC Classifications: H04L

Claim:
1. A method of generating a forwarding table for a packet switch, the method comprising: identifying, in a forwarding table of a packet switch, a plurality of multi-path groups wherein each multi-path group corresponds to a respective initial set of a plurality of forwarding entries in the forwarding table and each forwarding entry identifies an egress port of the packet switch and wherein the identified multi-path groups have a number of forwarding entries that exceed a predetermined number of entries, generating, for one or more multi-path groups in the plurality of multi-path groups, at least one replacement set of forwarding entries with fewer forwarding entries than the initial set of forwarding entries corresponding to the respective multi-path group; selecting, based on a traffic reduction cost metric, one or more of the replacement sets of forwarding entries, each selected replacement set corresponding to a different respective multi-path group in the plurality of multi-path groups; and replacing, in the forwarding table of the packet switch, the initial set of forwarding entries for each multi-path group corresponding to a selected replacement set of forwarding entries, with the respective corresponding selected replacement set of forwarding entries.