Patent ID: 6683885
Filing Date: 2004-01-27
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A network relaying apparatus connecting a plurality of networks for transferring packets input from the networks to the next destination based on route information, comprising:a plurality of network interfaces connected to the networks for controlling the interface with the networks; a plurality of routing processors; a routing manager for managing the internal parts of the apparatus; and a connector for connecting the routing manager and a said plurality of the routing processors respectively; each of said plurality of routing processors comprising: a packet buffer storing an overall input packet including a header and data; a fast readable and writable header memory accessible to said packet buffer asynchronously therewith, and storing header information including the header of the input packet and an internal header; a transfer engine performing a receiving processing and a transmitting processing, said receiving processing including storing the input packet received from the network or said connector to said packet buffer and adding the internal header to the packet header to produce header information and storing the produced header information in said header memory, and said transmitting processing including reading out the input packet from said packet buffer, producing an output packet from said input packet stored in said packet buffer and the header information stored in said header memory and outputting the output packet to said connector or said network; a search engine searching a transfer destination based on the header information stored in said header memory and writing transfer destination information thus searched into the internal header stored in said header memory; wherein the network interface outputs the packets input from the networks to a first routing processor connected with the network interface; wherein a transfer engine of the first routing processor stores the input packets in a packet buffer and the header information on the input packets in a header memory; wherein a search engine of the first routing processor searches for the destination of the input packets stored in the packet buffer based on the header information stored in the header memory and stores the destination information in the header memory; wherein said transfer engine of the first routing processor produces an output packet from the input packet stored in the packet buffer and the header information stored in the header memory and wherein outputs the output packet to the connector when the searched route to the destination is passed through a second routing processor; and wherein the connector transmits the output packet from the first routing processor to the second routing processor of the searched destination, based on the destination information included in the internal header of the output packet.