Packet forwarding apparatus with buffer recycling and associated packet forwarding method
AssigneeMediatek Inc.
InventorsChing-Liang Chang, Wei-Lun Liu
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A packet forwarding apparatus includes a first storage device and a processor. The first storage device has a plurality of buffers allocated therein, and at least one buffer included in the plurality of buffers is arranged to buffer at least one packet. The processor is arranged to execute a Linux kernel to perform software-based packet forwarding associated with the at least one packet. The at least one buffer allocated in the first storage device is recycled through direct memory access (DMA) management, and is reused for buffering at least one other packet.
Claims20
A packet forwarding apparatus comprising:
- a first storage device, wherein the first storage device has a plurality of buffers allocated therein, and at least one buffer included in the plurality of buffers is arranged to buffer at least one packet;
- and
- a processor, arranged to execute a Linux kernel to perform software-based packet forwarding associated with the at least one packet;
- wherein the at least one buffer allocated in the first storage device is recycled through direct memory access (DMA) management which enqueues at least one address of the at least one buffer allocated in the first storage device for later reuse of the at least one buffer via DMA, and reused for buffering at least one other packet.
A packet forwarding method comprising:
- buffering at least one packet in at least one buffer allocated in a storage device;
- executing a Linux kernel on a processor to perform software-based packet forwarding associated with the at least one packet;
- and
- recycling the at least one buffer allocated in the storage device through direct memory access (DMA) management which enqueues at least one address of the at least one buffer allocated in the first storage device for later reuse of the at least one buffer via DMA, and reusing the at least one buffer for buffering at least one other packet.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.