Patent ID: 7564841

Claim:
For use in a router, a routing table search circuit for determining a first destination address for a first received data packet comprising: a forwarding table comprising a plurality of forwarding table entries, each of said forwarding table entries comprising a destination address; a trie tree search table for translating a portion of an address associated with said first received data packet into a destination pointer for accessing said first destination address in said forwarding table, wherein a first stage of said trie tree search table is searched using a received address pointer retrieved from a previous stage of said trie tree search table and a first m-bit symbol comprising in bits of said portion; at least one consecutive identical symbols table associated with said first stage of said trie tree search table; and a control circuit capable of determining that a second m-bit symbol immediately following said first m-bit symbol is the same as said first m-bit symbol, wherein said control circuit, in response to said determination, determines a total number of consecutive identical m-bit symbols beginning with said first m-bit symbol.