Patent ID: 7260085

Claim:
A method for determining a destination for an Internet protocol packet, comprising the steps of: searching a memory for a destination Internet protocol address associated with said Internet protocol packet, the memory organized into a series of rows, each row including one destination Internet protocol address column, one weight value column, and one destination media access control address column, wherein at least one of said rows comprises a destination Internet protocol address having at least one universal bit, wherein universal bits are bits that accept any value, use of said universal bits ensuring that said step of searching said memory for said destination Internet protocol address associated with said Internet protocol packet results in said memory always having said destination Internet protocol address therein; utilizing said weight factor to select, from the series, a row matching the destination Internet protocol address; reading a destination media access control address column from the selected row; discarding said Internet protocol packet if a value of said destination media access control address is zero; and adding said destination media access control address to said Internet protocol packet as said destination of said packet, if said media access control address is not equal to zero.