Patent ID: 7813264

Claim:
A single router comprising: a packet manager to: receive an incoming packet, disassemble the packet into packet header information and a packet body, store the packet body, and transmit, within the router, the packet header information to a redundancy switch of the router; the redundancy switch to transmit, within the router and based on a signal received from a redundancy controller of the router, the packet header information to an active one, and not a non-active one, of a first processing component and a second processing component of the router; the active one of the first and second processing components to: determine, based on the packet header information, destination information for the packet, using a stored forwarding table received from an active one of a first routing engine and a second routing engine of the router, where the first and second processing components differ from the first and second routing engines, and process the packet header information to include the destination information; the active one and a non-active one, of the first and second routing engines, to each: maintain a routing table including routing information for a network, and construct the forwarding table from the routing information; the active one and not the non-active one, of the first and second routing engines, to provide, within the router, the forwarding table to the active one of the first and second processing components; and the redundancy controller to select, while maintaining the first and second routing engines in a redundant configuration, the active one of the first and second routing engines.