Patent ID: 8270401

Claim:
In a router for routing and switching data packets from one or more incoming links to one or more outgoing links, a method for handling the data packets, the method comprising: receiving the data packet on one of the one or more incoming links; measuring a length of the data packet measured in bytes; and dividing the data packet into at least two cells including a penultimate cell and a tail cell, wherein dividing of the data packet is performed so as to ensure that the penultimate cell and the tail cell are each at least 15 bytes, the dividing comprising: dividing the length of the data packet by thirty to yield a quotient and a remainder; if the remainder is less than fifteen bytes, setting a length of the penultimate cell to fifteen bytes and setting a length of the tail cell to the remainder plus fifteen bytes; and if the remainder is greater than or equal to fifteen bytes, setting the penultimate cell length to thirty bytes and setting the tail cell length to the remainder plus fifteen bytes.