Apparatus and method for allocating resources within a security processing architecture using multiple groups

A security processing method comprising:

• separating data packets of N different types into N defined groups;
• providing N group queues for storing packet processing request entries (“request entries”) identifying the data packets from each of the N defined groups;
• and
• forwarding data packets identified by request entries stored in each of the N defined groups to N groups of security processing resources dedicated to each of the N defined groups, the N groups of security processing resources processing the data packets from each of the N defined groups.

An apparatus comprising:

• a plurality of security processing resources for processing two or more different types of data traffic within a cryptographic processor;
• hardware-based scheduling logic embedded within the cryptographic processor to schedule security operations for a first type of data traffic to a first group of the plurality of security processing resources;
• and
• software-based scheduling logic executed within a memory external to the cryptographic processor to schedule security operations for a second type of data traffic to a second group of the plurality of security processing resources.

An apparatus comprising:

• a plurality of security processing resources for processing two or more different types of data traffic within a cryptographic processor;
• first scheduling means to provide a first type of data traffic to a first group of the security processing resources;
• and
• second scheduling means to provide one or more additional types of data traffic to a second predefined group of the security processing resources using a second scheduling technique.