Patent ID: 7689485

Claim:
A method, comprising: configuring a mechanism for accumulating information based on an access control list including a plurality of access control list entries, with one or more of the plurality of access control list entries identifying network accounting data collection requests; said configuring the mechanism including: associating network accounting data collection mechanisms with each of said one or more of the plurality of access control list entries identifying network accounting data collection requests; and wherein the access control list identifies to a bridge or a router information for allowing and denying flows of packet traffic, with at least one of the plurality of access control list entries identifies a deny operation and at least one of the plurality of access control list entries identifies a permit operation; and employing the bridge or the router to perform the following operations: for each particular item of a plurality of items: identifying a particular network accounting data collection mechanism of said network accounting data collection mechanisms corresponding to the particular item based on matching the particular item with said one or more of the plurality of access control list entries; and in response, updating the particular network accounting data collection mechanism corresponding to the particular item; wherein each item of the plurality of items includes one or more fields of a corresponding received packet; and wherein said operation of identifying the particular network accounting data collection mechanism of said network accounting data collection mechanisms corresponding to the particular item includes: performing a lookup operation in an associative memory based on the lookup value including the particular item to identify an associative memory result; and performing a lookup operation on an adjunct memory based on the associative memory result to identify the particular network accounting data collection mechanism of said network accounting data collection mechanisms.