Patent ID: 8451838

Claim:
A packet forwarding apparatus for forwarding packets by hardware implementation in a packet switch system for an internet protocol service, the packet forwarding apparatus comprising: an interface for transmitting/receiving a packet through interfacing with a data link layer; a bus operator for converting the packet received from the interface by a pre-set logic; a header parser parsing a header of the converted packet to derive an IP header from the inputted packet; and a network search engine controller receiving a parsed result and the packet from the header parser and controlling a command for forwarding the packet by interworking with an external network search engine, which is searched according to a data search for the input packet, and a processor, which provides a processor command for updating a look-up table including information to be processed according to flows in the network search engine, wherein the network search engine controller controls each of the data search for searching the external network search engine for the inputted packet and the processor command for updating a look-up table including information to be processed according to flows of the external network search engine during the forwarding of the packet by maintaining the packet in the network search engine controller while performing arbitration to determine which of the data search for searching the external network search engine and the processor command for updating the look-up table including information to be processed according to flows is to be performed in the external network search engine.