Patent ID: 6853638
Filing Date: 2005-02-08
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A routing system for distributing packets in a network, wherein the packets originate at a source and are returned to a destination, both source and destination external with respect to the routing system, comprising: a plurality of network interfaces that transfer packets to a destination and from a source; a plurality of route processing engines; a hash mechanism that performs a hashing function on at least a portion of net-work layer information packet, in the packets transferred to the routing system, to determine a distribution of the packets to the route processing engines for processing by the engines; a processing mechanism that determines packets belonging to a same flow and their original order from the network layer information of the packets, the network layer information including at least the same source/destination and protocol; and a data transferer that sends each ordered packet flow to a single route processing engine, thereby preserving the original ordered packet flows.