Patent ID: 8004990

Claim:
A method of forwarding packets within a network router comprising: distributing packet flows across a set of internal forwarding elements of the network router in accordance with a distribution map that associates hash values with forwarding engines, wherein the packet flows include a first packet flow having a first hash value associated with a first forwarding element by the distribution map, wherein the forwarding elements comprise packet forwarding engines that couple input interfaces of the network router to output interfaces of the network router; identifying, with a control unit of the network router, a gap in which no packet was received for the first packet flow for at least a defined threshold length of time; upon identifying the gap, selecting a second forwarding element of the network router based on traffic flow statistics for the packet flows and reassigning the first packet flow to the second forwarding element by updating the distribution map to associate the first hash value to the second forwarding element; after updating the distribution map to reassign the first packet flow, receiving additional packets for the first packet flow; and forwarding the additional packets of the reassigned first packet flow using the second forwarding element of the network router.