Patent ID: 6035348
Filing Date: 2000-03-07
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
A method for dequeuing a selected data packet from a single memory structure in which a sequence in which one or more data packets are stored in the single memory structure is preserved and in which each of the one or more data packets belongs to a corresponding one of one or more ordered sets, wherein the selected data packet belongs to a selected one of the one or more ordered sets with membership in the one or more ordered sets corresponding to a destination for each of the one or more data packets, the method comprising:searching for an intervening one of the one or more data packets which in sequence is positioned between the selected data packet and a head one of the one or more data packets and which belongs to the selected one of the one or more ordered sets, wherein the head one of the one or more data packets occupies the earliest position in the sequence of data packets stored in the single memory structure; anddequeuing the selected data packet from the single memory structure only upon a determination that the intervening one of the one or more data packets does not exist in sequence in a position between the selected data packet and the head one of the one or more data packets.