Patent ID: 7366728

Claim:
A classification system comprising: a communications network; a switch in the communications network; a network processor in the switch for classifying packets of information based on filter rules, the network processor being programmed to compress a tree structure comprising multiple levels of single bit test nodes and leaf nodes, the tree structure having been previously built from the filter rules in which each leaf node of the tree structure includes a given filter rule for classifying a given packet; and a storage in the switch for storing the compressed tree structure in a first memory structure of the storage such that the multiple levels of single bit test nodes and leaf nodes can be accessed from the first memory structure through a single memory access of the storage, wherein the network processor further collects single bit test nodes of the tree structure that are in a lowest level of the tree structure and separately stores only the collected single bit test nodes of the tree structure that are in the lowest level in a second memory structure of the storage that is contiguous with the first memory structure, and collects each leaf node of the tree structure and stores only the collected leaf nodes within a third memory structure of the storage that is contiguous to the second memory structure.