Patent ID: 7984180

Claim:
A method for processing data packets received from a network, comprising the steps of: receiving from a computing device an indication of a first maximum extent-of-search and an indication of a second maximum extent-of-search; iteratively searching a filter table a first time for a matching entry having first comparison criteria that are satisfied by the content of a first incoming data packet received from the network; and where a matching entry is identified in the step of searching a first time, after no more than a number of iterations indicated by the first maximum extent-of-search, delivering the packet to a receive queue in the computing device that is indicated by the matching entry, iteratively searching the filter table a second time for an entry having comparison criteria that are satisfied by the content of a second incoming data packet received from the network; where a second matching entry is identified in the step of searching a second time, after no more than a number of iterations indicated by the second maximum extent-of-search, delivering the packet to a receive queue in the computing device that is indicated by the second matching entry; iteratively searching the filter table for a matching entry having comparison criteria that are satisfied by the content of a third incoming data packet received from the network; where no matching entry is identified in the step of searching a third time, after the number of iterations indicated by the first maximum extent-of-search, delivering the packet to a default receive queue in the host; iteratively searching the filter table a fourth time for a matching entry having comparison criteria that are satisfied by the content of a fourth incoming data packet received from the network; and where no matching entry is identified in the step of searching a fourth time, after the number of iterations indicated by the second maximum extent-of-search, delivering the packet to a default receive queue in the host.