Patent ID: 6950429

Claim:
A method comprising: defining a routing table for each of a plurality of different transport layer protocols used in data packet transmission, wherein each of the different transport layer protocols is associated with a specific routing table, and wherein the different transport layer protocols are selected from a group that includes a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and a User Datagram Protocol (UDP), and wherein each routing table associates one of the different transport layer protocols with a plurality of port numbers; examining a header of a data packet in a lower layer to identify a transport layer protocol and a port number used by the data packet; routing the data packet in said lower layer according to a nodal pathway described by one of the routing tables according to the transport layer protocol and the port number used by the data packet; and in response to none of the routing tables containing a nodal pathway for the transport layer protocol and the port number used by the data packet, routing the data packet in said lower layer a pre-defined default nodal pathway.