Scaleable and robust solution for reducing complexity of resource identifier distribution in a large network processor-based system

A router comprising one or more network processing (NP) devices for routing data packets from a source NP device to a destination device via a switch fabric, each network processing device including a means capable of interfacing with one or more data queues, each data queue associated with a packet flow for receiving packets associated with a class-of-service characterizing treatment of packets comprising said packet flow, said router comprising:

• device located at a source NP device for classifying a packet to be routed according to a particular class-of-service, and determining outgoing interface information of a destination NP device handling said packet flow, one of said destination NP device interface means or packet flow having a pre-defined queue base address associated therewith;
• device for encoding a queue index offset for said packet according to a particular class-of-service characterizing said packet flow;
• forwarding mechanism for transmitting said packet, queue index offset and outgoing interface information to said destination NP;
• and,
• mechanism for determining a queue identifier from said queue base address and transmitted queue index offset, said queue identifier for indicating a particular queue to receive said classified packet, wherein said queue identifier is determined locally at the destination NP device forwarding the packet.

In a router comprising one or more network processing (NP) devices for routing data packets from a source NP device to a destination device via a switch fabric, with each network processing device including a means capable of interfacing with one or more data queues, each DATA QUEUE with a packet flow for receiving packets associated with a class-of-service characterizing treatment of packets comprising said packet flow, a method for routing packets comprising:

• a) classifying a packet to be forwarded from a source NP device according to a particular packet flow and determining outgoing interface information of a destination NP device handling said packet flow, one of said destination NP device interface means or packet flow having a pre-defined queue base address associated therewith;
• b) encoding a queue index offset for said packet according to a particular class-of-service characterizing said packet flow;
• c) forwarding said packet, queue index offset and outgoing interface information to said destination NP;
• and,
• d) determining a queue identifier from said base address and transmitted queue index offset for indicating a particular queue to receive said classified packet, wherein said queue identifier is determined locally at the destination NP device forwarding the packet.