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US 7,626,986 B1Granted
Method for operating a router having multiple processing paths
AssigneeAT&T Corp.
InventorElizabeth Suet H. Tse-Au
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for processing a packet having a header and a payload, the method including filtering the header to determine needs indicated by the packet header, selecting one of a time sensitive logical processing path, a non-time-sensitive logical processing path and a special needs logical processing path in response to the needs indicated by the packet header and processing the filtered packet header on the selected logical processing path.
Claims2
A method for processing a packet having a header and a payload comprising:
- stripping the header from the packet;
- providing the header to a header filter;
- storing the payload of the packet in an input buffer;
- filtering the header to determine needs indicated by the header, wherein said filtering the header comprises:
- determining whether the header is a special needs packet header;
- determining whether the header is a non-time sensitive packet header;
- or
- determining whether the header is a regular packet header;
- selecting one of:
- a time sensitive logical processing path, a non-time-sensitive logical processing path, or a special needs logical processing path in response to the needs indicated by the header;
- and
- processing the filtered header on the selected logical processing path, wherein said processing the filtered header on the selected logical processing path comprises:
- in response to the header being a special needs packet header, processing the filtered header on said special needs logical processing path;
- in response to the header being a non-time-sensitive packet header, processing the filtered header on said non-time-sensitive logical processing path, wherein said processing the filtered header on the non-time-sensitive logical processing path comprises:
- determining if the header contains a destination address not found in a tables lookup unit;
- in response to the header containing a destination address not found in the tables lookup unit:
- forwarding the header to a network processing module (NPM);
- obtaining a destination address for the header in the NPM;
- updating the header to include the destination address obtained from said NPM;
- sending the header back to the tables lookup unit;
- and
- integrating the header and the payload to provide an integrated packet to the non-time-sensitive logical processing path;
- and
- in response to the header being a regular packet header, processing the filtered header on said time-sensitive logical processing path.
21 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.