Patent ID: 6192051
Filing Date: 2001-02-20
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
Apparatus for identifying a next hop address of a network to which packets should be forwarded, the apparatus comprising a memory storing a forwarding table, the forwarding table comprising a first-level table having entries directly addressable by a first field of address bits from an address field of the packets, and a second-level table having entries associatively addressable by a second field of address bits from the address field of the packets, the first-level table being operative to provide (i) a next hop index indicative of a next hop network address for those packets having addresses for which the first field of address bits is sufficient to determine the next hop address, and (ii) a pointer to the second-level table for those packets having addresses for which the first field of address bits is not sufficient to determine the next hop address, and the second-level table being operative to provide a next hop index indicative of a next hop network address for those packets having address for which the first and second fields of address bits are sufficient to determine the next hop address.