Patent ID: 7447204
Filing Date: 2008-11-04
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method of classifying data in a data classifier deployed in a network device, the network device including a plurality of ports coupled to a heterogeneous communications network, the method comprising the steps of: receiving a data packet at one of the plurality of ports of the network device, the data packet including a first portion; receiving the first portion of the data packet at the data classifier; extracting a plurality of tags and a logical port identifier (ID) from the first portion, the plurality of tags including one or more of a flow tag, a media access control destination address tag, a media access control source address tag, a priority tag and a balancer tag; determining a flow ID representative of a network service on the heterogeneous communications network associated with the data packet, the step of determining the flow ID including a flow tag lookup process, a media access control destination address lookup process, a media access control source address learning process and an output flow ID selection process; determining a priority ID; combining the flow ID and the priority ID to create a queue ID, wherein the flow tag lookup process receives as inputs the flow tag and the logical port ID and provides as outputs a first output flow ID to the output flow ID selection process, a customer ID to both the media access control destination address lookup process and the media access control source address learning process and an input flow ID to the media access control source address learning process.