Patent ID: 7774496

Claim:
A packet processing system for a node of a data transfer network, said system comprising: a receiver for receiving a data packet at a node of the data transfer network; a selector for selecting, responsive to receiving the data packet at the node, a forwarding table of a first forwarding table format from a plurality of forwarding tables of differing forwarding table formats, said plurality of differing forwarding table formats comprising at least two different forwarding table formats, said at least two different forwarding table formats comprising at least two formats of a linear forwarding table format, a random forwarding table format, and a content-addressable memory forwarding table format, said selecting of the forwarding table of the first forwarding table format from the plurality of forwarding tables of differing forwarding table formats being based on an attribute associated with the data packet and including determining whether a value of the attribute falls within a defined range of attribute values, the defined range of attribute values being defined by at least one changeable value-range parameter, and applying a transformation to the value of the attribute, the transformation mapping a plurality of values of the attribute to a table index value, wherein the plurality of values of the attribute arc assigned to a same port and wherein the transformation is defined by a changeable value-transformation parameter; and wherein the data packet is mapped to an output port of the node utilizing the selected forwarding table of the first forwarding table format.