Patent ID: 7012890

Claim:
A packet forwarding apparatus, connected with a plurality of input lines and output lines, which forwards each input packet received from each of the input lines to an output line as identified by header information of the input packet, the apparatus comprising: a flow retrieval unit for comparing and matching the header information of the input packet with a plurality sets of flow identification conditions each set of which is used for classifying input packets into a flow and stored in one content addressable memory (CAM) of the flow retrieval unit, and for outputting at least two flow identifiers appropriate to the input packet concurrently to at least two header processing units respectively corresponding to each of the flow identifiers; said header processing units each of which incorporates an information table including a plurality of information entries, reads a single information entry from the information table according to the respective flow identifier outputted from the flow retrieval unit, and executes a given arithmetic operation using the single information entry; and means for forwarding the input packet according to control information which includes the executed result from at least one of the header processing units.