Patent ID: 7333489

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving a plurality of frames; storing the frames in a receive buffer, wherein the receive buffer is configured to be accessed in a first-in-first-out fashion; storing duplicated header information corresponding to each of the frames in a header storage, wherein the header storage is configured to provide access to the duplicated header information in the same order as the frames; maintaining a timer corresponding to each duplicated header information in the header storage that indicates how long the corresponding duplicated header information has been in header storage; retrieving duplicated header information from the header storage, wherein the duplicated header information corresponds to a first frame; prior to the first frame reaching a head position in the receive buffer, making a routing decision for delivering the first frame to its destination based upon the duplicated header information read from the header storage; retrieving the first frame from the receive buffer; and routing the first frame based upon the routing decision.