Method for routing of data packets and routing apparatus

A routing apparatus for routing of data packets, comprising:

• a first data compressor configured to receive a destination address identifier of a data packet to be forwarded and to generate a compressed destination address identifier therefrom,
• a routing table store configured to store a plurality of forwarding addresses available for routing, each forwarding address having been compressed according to a compression algorithm as used in the first data compressor and having been stored as an entry of the routing table store,
• a routing unit configured to compare the compressed destination address identifier with the compressed forwarding addresses stored in the routing table store so as to find a correspondence between the compressed destination address identifier and one of the entries of the routing table store,
• a switch configured to switch the data packet to an output link associated with a forwarding address corresponding to the entry for which a correspondence has been found with the compressed destination address identifier, and
• wherein each entry of the routing table comprises a compressed forwarding address and an output link number, and that, if a positive comparison between the compressed destination address identifier and a compressed forwarding address in an entry stored in the routing table is found, the data packet is switched to an output link associated with the output link number in the entry.

A routing apparatus for routing of data packets, comprising:

• extraction means for extracting a destination address identifier from a data packet to be forwarded,
• routing table storing means for storing a plurality of forwarding addresses available for routing, each of the plurality of forwarding addresses having been compressed according to a data compression algorithm and having been stored as an entry of the routing table_storing means,
• a routing unit for comparing the destination address identifier with the entries stored in the routing table storing means for finding a correspondence between the destination address identifier and one of the forwarding addresses, and
• switch means for switching the data packet to an output link associated with the respective forwarding address matching the destination address identifier,
• wherein first data compression means are provided for compressing the destination address identifier extracted by the extraction means according to said data compression algorithm,
• wherein second data compression means are provided for compressing the forwarding addresses according to said data compression algorithm and storing the compressed forwarding addresses as entries in the routing table storing means, the routing unit being configured such that it compares the compressed destination address identifier with the compressed forwarding addresses stored in the routing table storing means, and
• wherein each entry of the routing table comprises a compressed forwarding address and an output link number, and that, if a positive comparison between the compressed destination address identifier and a compressed forwarding address in an entry stored in the routing table is found, the data packet is switched to an output link associated with the output link number in the entry.