Patent ID: 7990993
Filing Date: 2011-08-02
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method comprising: with a software module executing above an operating system of a network device, creating a set of forwarding structures for use in forwarding network traffic with the network device without regard to limitations of an underlying architecture of a forwarding plane of the network device; providing the set of forwarding structures to a forwarding structure control module operative within or below the operating system of the network device; with the forwarding structure control module, creating a set of derived forwarding structures for installation in the forwarding plane based on the set of forwarding structures created by the software module, wherein creating the derived set of forwarding structures comprises creating the derived set of forwarding structures in accordance with the limitations of the underlying architecture of the forwarding plane; installing the derived set of forwarding structures within the forwarding plane; receiving a packet on an interface of the network device; and processing the packet in accordance with the installed derived set of forwarding structures.