Patent ID: 8660112

Claim:
A router configured to receive an incoming packet stream and to output a corresponding treated packet stream by applying one or more processing functions to packets in the incoming packet stream that are required for treating the incoming packet stream according to an Internet Protocol (IP) service provided by the router, said router comprising: a network interface configured to receive the incoming packet stream, wherein each packet in the packet stream belongs to a flow that is part of the IP service provided by the router; a first element card having a forwarding element configured to: determine from information in a header of one or more packets in the incoming packet stream that, before leaving the router, the packet stream requires a function to be applied to the packet stream as part of the IP service; detect that the function to be applied is not locally available on the first element card; consult a first local table maintained for the first element card, to find an identifier that associates the function to be applied to the packet stream with a second element card in the router that has a processing element configured to treat the packet stream by applying the required function; and forward the packet stream toward the second element card for treatment of the packet stream by the processing element on the second element card according to the IP service.