Patent ID: 8032543

Claim:
A sorting apparatus for sorting tags of packets of a telecommunication network into a tag storage structure in accordance with a pre-determined order, the sorting apparatus comprising: a tag search structure containing a record of tags in the tag storage structure; and a tag location pointer structure containing location pointers for tags in the tag storage structure, wherein: the sorting apparatus is adapted to receive a tag being sorted; the tag search structure is adapted to: read the tag being sorted; search for a closest matching tag to the tag being sorted using its record of the tag in the tag storage structure; access the tag location pointer structure; and retrieve a location pointer for the closest matching tag; and the sorting apparatus is further adapted to use the location pointer of the closest matching tag to access a linked list in the tag storage structure and to place the tag being sorted into the tag storage structure in an appropriate position in accordance with the predetermined order, wherein: the system comprises a distributed memory for the tag search structure and the tag location pointer, the distributed memory having a plurality of independently accessible memory locations forming a parallel pipeline structure for the sorting apparatus.