Patent ID: 8724624
Filing Date: 2014-05-13
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. An Internet Protocol (IP) lookup engine for use in a router receiving data packets from a network, the router having a plurality of input ports and output ports, each data packet having a header and a body, comprising: a specially designed systolic array processing element (PE) composed of an SRAM, a FIFO queue and an associated peripheral logic circuitry; a two dimensional and circular organization of PEs in the form of √{square root over (nm)}×√{square root over (nm)} for constructing a plurality of intersecting parallel pipelines of different length for processing the header of each of the data packets to determine to which output port the data packets should be routed; a plurality of selector units (SUs) and a plurality of contention resolvers (CRs) in front of input stages of the systolic array; and a congestion control unit for activating and deactivating the plurality of selector units (SUs) to adjust input traffic rate; wherein the plurality of intersecting parallel pipelines form a plurality of nodes at a plurality of intersection locations.