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US 7,742,471 B2Granted
Methods and systems for routing packets with a hardware forwarding engine and a software forwarding engine
AssigneeSamsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
InventorsSreedharan Sreejith, Praseeth Sreedharan
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system is provided that includes a hardware forwarding engine that routes data packets. The system also comprises a processor coupled to the hardware forwarding engine, the processor having a software forwarding engine that routes data packets. If data packets are forwarded from the hardware forwarding engine to the software forwarding engine, the hardware forwarding engine provides route lookup results for at least some of the data packets forwarded to the software forwarding engine.
Claims20
A system, comprising:
- a hardware forwarding engine that routes data packets;
- and
- a processor coupled to the hardware forwarding engine, the processor having a software forwarding engine that routes data packets,
- wherein, if data packets are forwarded from the hardware forwarding engine to the software forwarding engine, the hardware forwarding engine provides route lookup results for at least some of the data packets forwarded to the software forwarding engine.
1 more element
A method, comprising:
- performing, by a hardware forwarding engine, a route lookup process to determine a route associated with a data packet;
- if a next hop of the data packet is a processor interface, encapsulating the data packet in a first tunnel header that includes a result of the route lookup process;
- and
- forwarding, by the hardware forwarding engine, the result of the route lookup process along with the data packet to a software forwarding engine.
1 more element
A routing system, comprising:
- a hardware forwarding engine that routes data packets received from a network interface;
- and
- a processor in communication with the hardware forwarding engine, the processor having a software forwarding engine that routes data packets received from a processor interface, such that for a packet received from the network interface destined for the processor interface, the hardware forwarding engine is operable to perform a route lookup, the hardware forwarding engine further operable to insert a route lookup result into a tunnel header associated with the data packet and forward the tunnel header and the data packet to the processor, and further such that the software forwarding engine is operable to extract the route lookup result from the tunnel header and to route the data packet based on the route lookup result.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.