Patent ID: 7310685
Filing Date: 2007-12-18
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method for reducing the time to determine data packet routes on a computer network, the method comprising: (a) providing a forwarding process for looking up routing information from a memory to route a data packet on the computer network, wherein a plurality of original second protocol entries stored in the memory each include second protocol information for a second protocol, and wherein a plurality of first protocol combined entries stored in the memory each include first protocol information for a first protocol and cached second protocol information retrieved from an associated original second protocol entry, wherein the forwarding process includes a lookup in the memory to find a particular first protocol combined entry in the memory, the lookup obtaining the first protocol information and the cached second protocol information to provide a route for the data packet, and wherein the first protocol is different from the second protocol; and (b) providing a background maintenance process for maintaining the coherency of the cached associated second protocol information so that the cached second protocol information does not become stale when the original second protocol entries get updated.