Patent ID: 8719917

Claim:
A device comprising: one or more processors to: identify a relationship map that describes a topology of bind-points associated with the device; generate a merge graph based on the relationship map, the merge graph including one or more nodes, a particular node, of the one or more nodes, representing a path through the relationship map and including two or more merge-points, a first merge-point, of the two or more merge-points, being defined as a first filter associated with a first bind-point of the bind-points, a second merge-point, of the two or more merge-points, being defined as a second filter associated with a second bind-point of the bind-points, the path being a possible path through the first bind-point and the second bind-point, the first bind-point indicating that a data unit is switched through one of one or more particular virtual local area networks (VLANs), and the second bind-point indicating that the data unit egresses out of a particular port; generate ternary content-addressable memory (TCAM) entries based on the one or more nodes of the merge graph; and process the data unit based on the TCAM entries.