Patent ID: 8804507

Claim:
A computer-implemented method in which a computer system performs operations comprising: receiving a packet as part of an m-tuple flow, wherein m is a non-zero value indicating a number of tuples; computing a hash identifier (ID) for said packet; using said hash ID to index into a State Table and retrieving a corresponding record, wherein said record includes a time credit field and a Packet Processing Engine (PE) number and does not include m-tuple flow information; and when a time credit field of said record is zero then: setting said time credit field to a new value; selecting the Packet Processing Engine whose First-In-First-Out buffer (FIFO) has the lowest fill level; and updating a PE number field in the state table record with the selected PE number; and when the time credit field of said record is non-zero then: sending the packet to the PE based on the value stored in said record; and decrementing said time credit field in the record only if said time credit field is greater than zero.