Patent ID: 7961636

Claim:
A method for an intermediate network node to efficiently forward data packets, the method comprising: organizing packet-forwarding operations performed within the intermediate network node according to a directed forwarding graph, the directed forwarding graph containing a plurality of interconnected graph nodes, each graph node being associated with a corresponding set of packet-forwarding operations; receiving two or more data packets at the intermediate network node; loading into a cache memory a set of forwarding instructions that implement the set of packet-forwarding operations corresponding to a first graph node in the directed forwarding graph; arranging the received two or more data packets in a vector; processing the two or more data packets in the vector by repeatedly executing the set of forwarding instructions loaded in the cache memory that implement the set of packet-forwarding operations corresponding to the first graph node in the directed forwarding graph; and loading into the cache memory a set of forwarding instructions that implement the set of packet-forwarding operations corresponding to a subsequent graph node, wherein each set of forwarding instructions is loaded into the cache memory on a per vector basis.