Patent ID: 6868082

Claim:
A network apparatus comprising: storage units, mounted on the board, storing configuration information about the network apparatus; an input network interfaces mounted on the board, to couple to at least one network physical line; at least one processor, mounted on the board, receiving network data from said input network interface, processing said data, storing information about said network data in said storage units, storing said data as formatted data units in said storage units; a first bus interfaces to two bus connections; a first hardware component reading said configuration information and said information about data stored in said storing units and steering said formatted data units stored in said storage units to at least one of the two bus connections of said first bus interface; a second bus interface to two bus connections; an output network interface to at least one network physical line; and a second hardware component reading formatted data units arriving on at least one of the two bus connections of said second bus interface and storing said formatted date units in said storage units, said at least one processor reading said formatted data units from said storage units, processing them and sending them as network data to at least one network physical line through said output network interface.