Patent ID: 7325071
Filing Date: 2008-01-29
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. An apparatus for managing forwarding of data, comprising: an input port; a first output port; a second output port; switching fabric coupled to said input port, said first output port, and said second output port; memory configured to store a forwarding table comprising a plurality of forwarding table entries, said forwarding table is a radix tree routing table, said plurality of forwarding table entries comprising a forwarding table entry that is associated with a key, said key comprising a destination address, said forwarding table entry comprising a sparse array pointer and a logical network identification array in which a first logical network and a second logical network are represented, said logical network identification array comprising an array of pointers pointing to respective forwarding information, said first and second logical networks corresponding to first and second array positions in said logical network identification array, said first and second array positions of said array of pointers plus a segment offset of said forwarding table entry uniquely identifying said first and second logical networks among a plurality of logical networks, pointers at said first and second array positions pointing to forwarding information associated with said first and second logical networks; and a forwarding engine configured to route a first packet received on said input port through said switching fabric to said first output port utilizing said forwarding table, said key, a first pointer stored at said first array position in said logical network identification array to point to first forwarding information comprising a first port identifier, and a first logical traffic identifier corresponding to said first logical network, said first logical traffic identifier to identify said first logical network, said first packet comprising said key and said first logical traffic identifier, and to route a second packet received on said input port through said switching fabric to said second output port utilizing said forwarding table, said key, a second pointer stored at said second array position in said logical network identification array to point to second forwarding information comprising a second port identifier, and a second logical traffic identifier corresponding to said second logical network, said second logical traffic identifier to identify said second logical network, said second packet comprising said key and said second logical traffic identifier.