Patent ID: 6463067
Filing Date: 2002-10-08
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
Packet processing apparatus, comprising:a request queue operative to receive lookup requests from a packet processor, each request including various information elements from a corresponding received packet and indicating that both a route lookup and a packet classification are to be performed based on the information elements contained in the request, the request queue having associated status information operative to indicate the number of empty entries therein; a route lookup engine (RLE) having an RLE input queue and an RLE output queue, the RLE input queue being coupled to the request queue and being operative to receive selected information elements of requests from the request queue, the RLE being operative based on the selected information elements of each request to search for forwarding information indicating how the packet corresponding to the request should be forwarded, the RLE being operative to place the forwarding information into the RLE output queue upon completion of the search; a packet classification engine (PCE) having a PCE input queue and a PCE output queue, the PCE input queue being coupled to the request queue and being operative to receive selected information elements of requests from the request queue, the PCE being operative based on the selected information elements of each request to perform a classification process and to generate classification information about the packet corresponding to the request, the PCE being operative to place the classification information into the PCE output queue upon completion of the classification process; and a result queue coupled to the RLE output queue and the PCE output queue, the result queue being operative to (i) receive the forwarding information and the classification information resulting from each request, (i) include the received forwarding information and classification information in a single result for each request, and (iii) provide each result to the packet processor in a corresponding communication transaction therewith.