Patent ID: 7408933

Claim:
A distributed router, comprising: a plurality of line connection units; a main processor disposed to construct and manage a routing table, to receive changes of routing information from adjacent routers, update the routing table, and to broadcast changes of routing information received through internal InterProcessor Communication paths within the distributed router; a switching unit coupled to switch transmission of packets between the line connection units and the main processor; a plurality of forwarding tables positioned in different corresponding ones of the plurality of line connection units, to copy, store and manage parts of the routing table; and a plurality of forwarding processors positioned in different corresponding ones of the plurality of line connection units, to receive the changes of routing information broadcast by the main processor through the internal InterProcessor Communication paths of the distributed router, to update different corresponding ones of the forwarding tables, to ascertain a source address of a packet received, to ascertain an output direction of a packet having a source address of an external router by looking-up forwarding information in corresponding ones of the forwarding tables for the packet received from the external router, and transmitting the packet to the output direction ascertained, to determine whether an output direction of a packet having a source address of the switching unit is toward an external router or toward the switching unit by looking-up the forwarding information in the corresponding forwarding table for the packet, to transmit the packet to the external router when the determined output direction of the packet is toward the external router, and to discard the packet when the determined output direction of transmission of the packet is toward the switching unit.