Patent ID: 7443878

Claim:
A method for scaling a network system comprising: providing at least one network interface unit, each network interface unit including a plurality of memory access channels, wherein said at least one network interface unit is configured to transport each of a plurality of data packets to one or more of said plurality of processing entities, wherein each of a plurality of processing entities is accessible via at least one corresponding memory access channel of the plurality of memory access channels; determining, via a packet classifier of said at least one network interface unit, a respective memory access channel of said plurality of memory access channels based on header information of said data packet and information specified by one or more of said processing entities; for at least one data packet of said plurality of data packets, the packet classifier transporting the at least one data packet, via the respective memory access channel determined by the packet classifier for said at least one data packet, to the processing entity that corresponds to said respective memory access channel; and for at least one other data packet of said plurality of data packets, the packet classifier transporting the at least one other data packet, via a different memory access channel that is different than the respective memory access channel determined by the packet classifier for the at least one other data packet, to the processing entity that corresponds to said different memory access channel.