Patent ID: 7885260

Claim:
An apparatus for routing information, the apparatus comprising: a plurality of line cards; a route processor comprising: a protocol offload engine; and a control plane processing subsystem configured to run a protocol application to maintain a forwarding information base (FIB) based on communications with external routing devices, and to offload to the protocol offload engine the protocol processing for a plurality of protocol sessions of the route processor with external devices; and a mechanism for communicating among said line cards and route processor; wherein, for each particular data item of a series of data items generated by the protocol application to be sent to a device external to the apparatus: the protocol offload engine is configured to perform said protocol processing of said particular data item, including framing and packetization, to generate and forward one or more particular packets to a line card of said line cards; and the line card is configured to identify a particular line card and port for sending out said one or more particular packets, and if the particular line card is not the line card, then to forward said one or more particular packets to the particular line card for sending out said port of the particular line, else to send said one or more particular packets out said port of the line card.