Patent ID: 7991006

Claim:
A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing software code, wherein the software code is computer-executable to implement: a memory manager at a network node, the memory manager having a reserved memory area in which the memory manager defines a currently designated portion of memory, and an incoming packet manager at the network node, wherein the incoming packet manager is responsive to receiving an incoming packet, wherein the incoming packet comprises: a routing protocol header usable by a network routing protocol to route the packet across a network from a network source to a final network destination, wherein the routing protocol header indicates the network node as the final network destination of the incoming packet, and a separate transport protocol header, usable by a separate transport protocol to establish a connection between the network source and the incoming packet manager; wherein in response to receiving the incoming packet, the incoming packet manager is configured to perform: generating an identifier from information contained in the routing header, searching for the identifier in at least the currently designated portion of the reserved memory area, in response to determining that the designated portion of memory does not store an indication of the identifier, determining that the incoming packet is not a redundant instance of the incoming packet and storing an indication of the identifier in the currently designated portion of memory, and in response to determining that the designated portion of memory contains an indication of the identifier, determining that the incoming packet is a redundant instance of a previously received packet and filtering out the incoming packet as redundant; wherein said generating, said searching, said storing and said filtering are performed independent of the transport protocol.