Patent ID: 7167474

Claim:
A network relaying apparatus connected to a plurality of networks and outputting packets input from said networks, to the next transfer route based on address information, comprising: a plurality of network interfaces connected to at least one of said networks and transmitting and receiving packets input to and from said at least one network, each packet being formed of a header and data; a plurality of routing processors connected to at least one of said plurality of network interfaces and routing input packets input from said network interface; a routing manager for managing internal components of the apparatus; and a connector for connecting said routing manager and each of a plurality of said routing processors; wherein each of said plurality of routing processors comprises: a packet buffer for storing overall input packets; a header memory accessible asynchronously with said packet buffer and adapted for storing header information including a header of input packet and an internal header; a transfer engine which stores an input packet input from said network interface to said packet buffer and stores the header of the input packet and said internal header as header information to said header memory, and generates an output packet based on the input packet stored in said packet buffer and the header information stored in said header memory, and outputs the output packet to said connector or said network interface; and a search engine which searches next transfer route information based on the header information stored in said header memory to extract next transfer route information and writes the extracted next transfer route information into said header memory as part of said internal header; and when said internal header stored in said header memory includes a plurality of next transfer route information for multicasting, said transfer engine outputs said output packet to any or both of said connector and said at least one network interface in accordance with each of said plurality of next transfer route information.