Patent ID: 7069268

Claim:
An apparatus for identifying data, comprising: a network element operable to receive a data stream, the network element including: a processor; and a memory element coupled to the processor, the memory element including a first hash table operable to store a plurality of first hash table entries and a second hash table operable to store a plurality of second hash table entries, wherein the processor performs a hashing operation on a portion of the data stream in order to identify a key that reflects an identity associated with the data stream, the key being used to generate a hash index used to correlate a match between the key and a selected one or more of the entries in the first and second hash tables, and wherein the memory element includes third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth hash tables, each of which are operable to store multiple entries that may be compared to the key in order to evaluate if there is a match between the key and the entries in the hash tables.