Patent ID: 7720053
Filing Date: 2010-05-18
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A system for providing Internet Protocol (IP) services, comprising: a switch fabric; a line interface/network module coupled to the switch fabric; a plurality of virtual routing engines (VREs) coupled to the switch fabric; and a virtual services engine (VSE) coupled to the switch fabric; wherein the line interface/network module includes an ingress forwarding manager which maintains a steering table mapping virtual local area networks (VLANs) to one or more VREs of the plurality of VREs, receives packets and steers ingress packets across the switch fabric to a selected VRE of the plurality of VREs and transmits egress packets according to their relative priority; wherein the selected VRE determines if a packet associated with a packet flow requires processing by the VSE by performing flow-based packet classification on the packet and evaluating forwarding state information associated with previously stored flow learning results based on a previously received packet of the packet flow; and if the packet is determined to require processing by the VSE, then steering the packet across the switch fabric to the VSE for processing.