Patent ID: 7099336

Claim:
A network switch for network communications, said network switch comprising: a first data port interface, said first data port interface supporting a plurality of data ports transmitting and receiving data at a first data rate; a second data port interface, said second data port interface supporting a plurality of data ports transmitting and receiving data at a second data rate; a CPU interface, said CPU interface configured to communicate with a CPU; an internal memory, said internal memory communicating with said first data port interface and said second data port interface; a memory management unit, said memory management unit including an external memory interface for communicating data from at least one of said first data port interface and said second data port interface and an external memory; a communication channel, communicating data and messaging information between said first data port interface, said second data port interface, the CPU interface, said internal memory, and said memory management unit; wherein one data port interface of said first data port interface and said second data port interface comprises a fast filtering processor, said fast filtering processor filtering the data coming into the one data port interface, and taking selective filter action based upon a filtering result, and wherein said one data port interface further comprises a flow monitor for monitoring flows of data through the network switch, where a flow of said flows of data is defined by a combination of a source address and a destination address for a portion of the data passing through the network switch, and wherein monitoring flows of data comprises associating a particular packet with a previously identified flow if the particular packet has both the source address and the destination address of the previously identified flow.