Patent ID: 7154888

Claim:
A method for generating lookup tables and a final equivalence set for use in classifying a network packet in accordance with a policy that specifies one or more classes, each class containing one or more match statements, the match statements being one of a stand-alone matching rule and a matching rule in an access control list (ACL) defining one or more matching rules, the method comprising the steps of: generating a super class that contains all of the matching rules associated with the classes specified by the policy and that contains for each class a class name that identifies the class, a class criterion associated with the class, and a bitmap representing the matching rules associated with the class; converting the matching rules of the super class into a single, hierarchical arrangement of lookup tables and associated equivalence sets, the hierarchical arrangement having a plurality of levels including a first level and a final level, the final equivalence set being associated with the final level.