Patent ID: 6804241
Filing Date: 2004-10-12
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A method for forwarding data packets across a switching node on a network, said method comprising:(a) defining a plurality of subaddress fields for a destination address field common to the data packets; (b) preparing a table associating destination addresses for the data packets with an output from the switching node, the table having separate portions for the subaddress fields defined in step (a); (c) providing a series of subaddress processors equal to the number of and associated with the defined subaddress fields; (d) receiving a series of destination addresses from a series of packets of data to be forwarded across the switching node; (e) using the series of subaddress processors to access the table in a pipelined fashion to retrieve an output path for each of the received packets of data, such that during a first addressing interval a first subaddress processor accesses a first portion of the table associated with the first subaddress field; and (f) during a second addressing interval, a second subaddress processor accesses a second portion of the table associated with the second subaddress field, and the first subaddress processor accesses the first portion of the table associated with the first subaddress field.