Patent ID: 8331371

Claim:
A system for routing packets comprising: a router management device for associating destination address information to a router hierarchy comprising a plurality of levels, wherein the router management device is configured to, for each level of the router hierarchy, dynamically assign one or more router devices to a portion of incoming packets based at least in part on traffic volume associated with one or more destination addresses of the incoming packets; one or more router devices corresponding to a first level of the router hierarchy; one or more router devices corresponding to a second level of the router hierarchy, the second level of the router hierarchy for processing an incoming packet for routing received from at least one of the one or more router devices corresponding to the first level of a router hierarchy, wherein each router device corresponding to the second level is allocated a portion of destination addresses of incoming packets by the router management device, and wherein the portion of destination address is associated with a first subset of destination addresses of incoming packets; one or more router devices corresponding to a third level of the router hierarchy, the third level of the router hierarchy for processing an incoming packet for routing received from at least one of the one or more router devices corresponding to the second level of a router hierarchy, wherein each router device corresponding to the third level is allocated a portion of destination addresses of incoming packets by the router management device, and wherein the portion of destination address is associated with a second subset of destination addresses of incoming packets; wherein the one or more router devices corresponding to the first level of a router hierarchy receive, for routing, an incoming packet comprising a destination address, and identify at least one router device corresponding to the second level of the router hierarchy based at least in part on a first subset of the destination address and wherein the at least one router device corresponding to the second level of a router hierarchy identifies at least one router device corresponding to the third level of the router hierarchy based at least in part on a second subset of the destination address of the incoming packet, and wherein the second subset of the destination address is greater than the first subset of the destination address.