Quality of service control mechanism and apparatus

Apparatus for determining a Quality of Service variable to be employed by a telecommunications device when processing a received Ethernet frame, comprising:

• a network interface module configured for Ethernet type traffic, said network interface module operative to receive said Ethernet frame, and wherein said Ethernet frame includes a header;
• a memory in which at least one Quality of Service variable is stored together with routing information;
• a filter operative to determine whether said received Ethernet frame is associated with a flow by ascertaining whether a protocol type of said received Ethernet frame is an IP protocol type and whether said header portion of the received Ethernet frame indicates a source address and a destination address that are both positively identified, wherein said filter is operative to ascertain whether said protocol type of said received Ethernet frame is an IP protocol type by
• comparing the protocol type field of the received Ethernet frame with at least one predetermined value to determine said protocol type of said received Ethernet frame, and
• wherein said filter is operative to ascertain whether said source address and said destination address are positively identified by
• comparing a unique identifier associated with the bridge/router with a first portion of the destination address, and
• comparing a second portion of the destination address with a predetermined range of values if the unique identifier matches the first portion of the destination address;
• and
• processor circuitry operative to select a flow identifier including at least a portion of said header to obtain, via a single lookup, both said at least one Quality of Service variable and routing information associated with said received Ethernet frame.

A method for assigning at least one Quality of Service variable to an Ethernet frame in a telecommunications device associated with a cache memory in which at least one Quality of Service variable is maintained, the cache memory further maintaining routing information, comprising the steps of:

• receiving said Ethernet frame at a network interface module of said device configured for Ethernet type traffic, said received Ethernet frame having a header;
• determining whether the received Ethernet frame is associated with a flow by determining whether a protocol type of said received Ethernet frame is an IP protocol type and whether a header portion of the data unit indicates both a positively identified source address and a positively identified destination address, wherein said determining if said received Ethernet frame includes both a positively identified source address and a positively identified destination addresses includes
• comparing a unique identifier with a first portion of a destination address selected from the header, wherein said unique identifier is associated with the bridge/router, and
• comparing a second portion of the destination address with a predetermined range of values in the event that the unique identifier matches the first portion of the destination address,
• and wherein said determining whether said protocol type of said Ethernet frame is an IP protocol type includes comparing the protocol type with at least one predetermined value;
• and
• in the event said received Ethernet frame is determined to be associated with a flow, indexing into said cache memory to obtain, via a single lookup, the at least one Quality of Service variable and routing information for the received Ethernet frame.

Apparatus for determining a Quality of Service variable to be employed by a telecommunications device when processing a received Ethernet frame, comprising:

• a network interface module configured for Ethernet type traffic, said network interface module operative to received said Ethernet frame, and wherein said received Ethernet frame includes a header;
• a cache memory in which at least one Quality of Service variable is stored, the cache memory further storing routing information;
• a filter operative to determine whether the data unit is associated with a flow by ascertaining whether a protocol type of said received Ethernet frame is an IP protocol type and whether a header portion of the data unit indicates both a positively identified source address and a positively identified destination address, wherein said filter is operative to ascertain whether said protocol type of said received Ethernet frame is an IP protocol type by
• comparing the protocol type field of the received Ethernet frame with at least one predetermined value to determine said protocol type of said received Ethernet frame, and
• wherein said filter is operative to ascertain whether said source address and said destination address are positively identified by
• comparing a unique identifier associated with the bridge/router with a first portion of the destination address, and
• comparing a second portion of the destination address with a predetermined range of values if the unique identifier matches the first portion of the destination address;
• and
• processor circuitry operative to perform a single look-up operation on said cache memory based on selected portions of said header to obtain both said at least one Quality of Service variable and routing information from the cache memory for application to the received Ethernet frame in the event that said received Ethernet frame is determined to be associated with a flow.