Methods and apparatus for storage and processing of routing information

A method of processing a plurality of sets of routing information received from corresponding ones of a plurality of neighbor nodes connectable to a router, the router having a plurality of memory units accessible via separate paths, the method comprising:

• said router creating a respective plurality of non-identical routing information subsets from each of at least one of the received sets of routing information;
• said router accessing the plurality of memory units via the separate paths;
• and
• said router storing the plurality of non-identical routing information subsets created from a given one of said received sets of routing information in respective ones of the plurality of memory units,
• wherein said at least one of the received sets of routing information is a plurality of the received sets of routing information, and
• wherein each of the received sets of routing information includes a respective set of routes and wherein said creating a respective plurality of non-identical routing information subsets from each of at least one of the received sets of routing information includes creating a respective plurality of non-identical subsets of routes from the set of routes in each of the at least one of the received sets of routing information,
• further comprising:
• for each of the memory units, creating a forwarding sub-table associated with said memory unit from all routing information subsets stored in said memory unit
• further comprising:
• creating a complete forwarding table from the forwarding sub-tables stored in the plurality of memory units
• wherein no given memory unit of said plurality of memory units contains all routes from which said complete forwarding table is built.

A method of processing a plurality of sets of routing information received from corresponding ones of a plurality of neighbor nodes connectable to a router, the router having a plurality of memory units accessible via separate paths, the method comprising:

• said router creating a respective plurality of non-identical routing information subsets from each of at least one of the received sets of routing information;
• said router accessing the plurality of memory units via the separate paths;
• and
• said router storing the plurality of non-identical routing information subsets created from a given one of said received sets of routing information in respective ones of the plurality of memory units,
• wherein said at least one of the received sets of routing information is a plurality of the received sets of routing information, and
• further comprising:
• for each of the memory units and for each of the neighbor nodes, creating a partial output routing information base, associated with said memory unit and said neighbor node, from all routing information subsets stored in said memory unit.

A method of processing a plurality of sets of routing information received from corresponding ones of a plurality of neighbor nodes connectable to a router, the router having a plurality of memory units accessible via separate paths, the method comprising:

• said router creating a respective plurality of non-identical routing information subsets from each of at least one of the received sets of routing information;
• said router accessing the plurality of memory units via the separate paths;
• and
• said router storing the plurality of non-identical routing information subsets created from a given one of said received sets of routing information in respective ones of the plurality of memory units,
• wherein said at least one of the received sets of routing information is a plurality of the received sets of routing information, and
• wherein each of the received sets of routing information includes a respective set of prefixes and associated attributes and wherein creating a respective plurality of non-identical routing information subsets from each of at least one of the received sets of routing information includes creating a respective plurality of non-identical subsets of prefixes and associated attributes from the set of prefixes and associated attributes in each of at least one of the received sets of routing information.

A method of processing a plurality of sets of routing information received from corresponding ones of a plurality of neighbor nodes connectable to a router, the router having a plurality of memory units accessible via separate paths, the method comprising:

• said router creating a respective plurality of non-identical routing information subsets from each of at least one of the received sets of routing information;
• said router accessing the plurality of memory units via the separate paths;
• and
• said router storing the plurality of non-identical routing information subsets created from a given one of said received sets of routing information in respective ones of the plurality of memory units,
• wherein said at least one of the received sets of routing information is a plurality of the received sets of routing information, and
• further comprising:
• identifying a set of at least two available memory units among the plurality of memory units;
• wherein creating a respective plurality of non-identical routing information subsets from each of at least one of the received sets of routing information includes creating as many non-identical routing information subsets from a certain one of said received sets of routing information as there are memory units in said set of available memory units.