Address learning and aging for network bridging in a network processor

A network processor for processing data packets received from a communication link coupled to a packet-switched network, the network processor comprising:

• a plurality of processing modules and at least one shared memory;
• an I/O adapter configured to determine (i) an associated source address of each received data packet and at least one associated destination address of each received data packet, and (ii) whether the at least one associated destination address is stored in a memory of the I/O adapter;
• if the at least one associated destination address is stored in the I/O adapter memory, the I/O adapter is configured to:
• process the received data packet in accordance with one or more bridging rules associated with each destination address stored in the I/O adapter memory;
• if the at least one associated destination address is not stored in the I/O adapter memory, the I/O adapter is configured to:
• send a task message via a task communication ring bus of the network processor to one of the plurality of processing modules of the network processor, the task message comprising the at least one associated destination address, wherein the processing module is configured to determine whether the at least one associated destination address in the task message is stored in an address table stored in the at least one shared memory;
• if the at least one associated destination address is stored in the address table, the processing module is configured to:
• process, based on the task message, the received data packet in accordance with one or more bridging rules associated with each destination address stored in the address table;
• and
• update, based on the bridging rules associated with the destination address stored in the address table, the bridging rules associated with the destination address stored in the I/O adapter memory,
• wherein the I/O adapter memory has lower access latency than the address table.