Patent ID: 7505459

Claim:
A method for switching packets in a passive optical network which includes a central node and at least one remote node, the method comprising: receiving a packet at the central node; obtaining a first set of results by performing a first lookup based on a first set of values which include a virtual local area network (VLAN) identifier of the packet; wherein the first lookup involves directly addressing a direct-search table by offsetting one or more base addresses based on the first set of values; wherein the direct-search table is divided into sub-tables, each of which starts at a corresponding base address; wherein a subset of the sub-tables are used if the packet is an upstream packet; wherein a subset of the sub-tables are used if the packet is a downstream packet; obtaining a second set of results by performing a second lookup based on a second set of values derived from the packet; producing a merged value by merging the first set of results and the second set of results; obtaining a subsequent result by performing a subsequent lookup with the merged value; and if the packet is a downstream packet, deriving a logical identifier corresponding to one or more remote nodes from the subsequent result, incorporating the logical identifier into the packet, and transmitting the packet to one or more remote nodes.