# US 2014/0153393 A1 · Ingress traffic classification and prioritization with dynamic load balancing > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 2014/0153393 A1 - Document ID: US20140153393A1 - Status: Published application - Kind: A1 - Application number: 13/692,608 - Filed: 2012-12-03 - Published: 2014-06-05 - Earliest claimed: 2012-12-03 - Assignees: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. - Inventors: Ramsundar Janakiraman; Avinash Sridharan; Ravinder Verma; Prasad Palkar - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20140153393A1 ## CPC - H04L 47/2433: {Allocation of priorities to traffic types} - H04L 45/74591: {using content-addressable memories [CAM]} - H04L 67/1036: Load balancing of requests to servers for services different from user content provisioning, e.g. load balancing across domain name servers - H04L 69/22: Parsing or analysis of headers - H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M) ## Abstract According to one embodiment, a method comprises an operation of determining whether an ingress control message is locally terminated control traffic on a digital device prior to the ingress control message being forwarded to a hardware processor of the digital device for processing. A priority is assigned to the ingress control message based on information within the ingress control message, if the ingress control message is determined to be locally terminated control logic. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method comprising: determining whether an ingress message is locally terminated traffic on a digital device prior to the ingress message being forwarded to a hardware processor of the digital device for processing; assigning a priority to the ingress message based on information within the ingress message if the ingress message is determined to be locally terminated logic. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the determining whether the ingress message is locally terminated traffic is performed by a micro-core logic unit implemented within the digital device, wherein the micro-core logic unit is positioned on a message flow path between a network interface of the digital device that received the ingress message and the hardware processor. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the determining whether the ingress message is locally terminated traffic includes analysis of information within a payload of the ingress message and stored information associated with one or more active processes on a control plane of the digital device, wherein: the plurality of processors includes the processor, and each of the one or more active processes is configured to (i) process the ingress message or (ii) issue a message in reply to the ingress message. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1 further comprising: dropping the ingress message at a Physical (PHY) layer for the digital device if (i) the incoming message is determined to be a transient message being a message that is forwarded from the digital device to another digital device and (ii) the digital device is unable to process all received ingress messages. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the determining that the ingress message is locally terminated traffic comprises accessing a destination Internet Protocol (IP) address within a payload of the ingress message; determining if the destination IP address corresponds to an IP address associated with one or more active processes running on a control plane of the digital device that will either process the ingress message or initiate a reply to the ingress message. ### Claim 6 (depends on 5) The method of claim 5, wherein the determining if the destination IP address corresponds to the IP address associated with the active process comprises comparing a first portion of the destination IP address to a first portion of the IP address stored in a first memory having a first access latency; comparing a second portion of the destination IP address to a second portion of the IP address stored in a second memory having a second access latency greater than the first access latency. ### Claim 7 (depends on 6) The method of claim 6, wherein the comparing of the second portion of the destination IP address to the second portion of the IP address is conducted only if the first portion of the destination IP address matches the first portion of the IP address stored in the first memory. ### Claim 8 (depends on 6) The method of claim 6, wherein the first memory is a content addressable memory (CAM) and the second memory is a random access memory (RAM). ### Claim 9 (depends on 5) The method of claim 5, wherein the determining whether the ingress message is locally terminated traffic further comprises comparing port information within the ingress message to a port information stored in the first memory, wherein the stored port information corresponds to the one or more active processes; determining that the port information within the ingress message matches the stored port information. ### Claim 10 (depends on 3) The method of claim 3 further comprising: altering the stored information used to classify ingress messages as locally-terminated traffic upon detection by the hardware processor processing an access control list that controls user access over a network to which the digital device is connected. ### Claim 11 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the ingress message is an ingress control message including a control payload and a data payload, the control payload including an L2 header and an L3 header from which information is used to determine if the ingress control message is locally terminated at a control plane of the digital device. ### Claim 12 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the assigning of the priority includes placing the ingress message into a particular descriptor buffer pool of a plurality of buffer pools, where each descriptor buffer pool of the plurality of descriptor buffer pools is assigned a unique priority. ### Claim 13 A method comprising: generating a hash result based on information within an ingress message; assigning processing responsibility of the ingress message to a first processor of a plurality of processors based on the hash result; transferring processing responsibility of the ingress message by one of the plurality of processors based on load conditions measured by at least one of the plurality of processors. ### Claim 14 (depends on 13) The method of claim 13, wherein the transferring of the processing responsibility of the ingress message is performed by the first processor upon the first processor having a load exceeding a first threshold. ### Claim 15 (depends on 14) The method of claim 14, wherein the transferring of the processing responsibility of the ingress message comprises the first processor substituting a processor identifier for the first processor indexed by the hash result with a processor identifier for a second processor of plurality of processors. ### Claim 16 (depends on 15) The method of claim 15, wherein the second processor having a lesser operating load than the first processor. ### Claim 17 (depends on 13) The method of claim 13, wherein the transferring of the processing responsibility of the ingress message is performed by a second processor of plurality of processors upon the first processor having a load exceeding a first threshold. ### Claim 18 (depends on 13) The method of claim 13, wherein the transferring of the processing responsibility of the ingress message is performed by a second processor of the plurality of processors upon the second processor having a load that falls below a second threshold. ### Claim 19 (depends on 13) The method of claim 13 further comprising: monitoring ingress traffic associated with each hash value corresponding to an entry for a table, wherein the table includes a second plurality of entries greater in number than the plurality of processors with each entry of the plurality of entries includes a processor identifier; reassigning processing responsibility of the ingress message based on load associated with a particular hash value. ### Claim 20 A non-transitory computer readable medium including software that, when executed by hardware logic of a digital device, performs operations comprising: determining whether an ingress message is locally terminated at the digital device prior to the ingress message being forwarded to a hardware processor of the digital device for processing; assigning a priority to the ingress message based on information within the ingress message if the ingress message is determined to be locally terminated control logic.