Patent ID: 7924827

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving a data stream comprising a first service and a second service, the first service comprising a first packet, the first packet comprising a first address segment, the first address segment corresponding to a terminating portion of a service address field, the terminating portion being a proper subset of the service address field, the second service comprising a second address segment, the second address segment corresponding to the terminating portion of the service address field; determining a predetermined terminating value; comparing the predetermined terminating value stored in a register to the first address segment to determine a first Boolean value; in response to said determining that the first Boolean value equals ‘True’, processing the first packet to support the first service; configuring a filter arrangement to process the first address segment by: (i) receiving an identification of at least two clusters comprising the first address segment of the first packet; and (ii) selecting at least two of a plurality of fixed length filters to filter the at least two clusters; comparing the predetermined terminating value stored in the register to the second address segment to determine a second Boolean value; and in response to said determining that the second Boolean value equals ‘True’, processing the second packet to support the second service.