Patent ID: 7773516

Claim:
A network processor, comprising: a memory access module to retrieve a packet transmission data structure (PTD) from a memory accessible to the network processor; a PTD processing module to parse packet data from the PTD; a transmission module to transmit the data over the network as a network packet; and a control module to invoke the transmission module to transmit the packet data parsed from the PTD as a network packet; wherein the PTD processing module is further configured to parse at least one of: repetition information from the PTD and further wherein the control module is configured to invoke the transmission module to transmit a plurality of packets; transmission interval information from the PTD and wherein the control module is configured to use the transmission interval to control timing of consecutive invocations of the transmission module; and physical port information from the PTD and wherein the control module is configured to use the physical port information to influence the destination of the transmitted packet.