Method for enhancing table lookups with exact and wildcards matching for parallel environments

An apparatus comprising:

• a plurality of processor cores, configured to:
• generate a plurality of flow exact patterns based on an associated plurality of flows from a flow table;
• and
• select a highest priority flow utilizing a parallel flow selection based on said plurality of flow exact patterns;
• said flow exact patterns comprising the maximum combinations of said flows from said flow table, based on a binomial coefficient calculation, plus one additional entry;
• said binomial coefficient calculation being the number of field combinations of said flows, from said flow table, associated with said fields.

A method of grouping flows, said method comprising:

• generating a plurality of flow exact patterns, based on an associated flow table, for grouping flows based on similar exact value fields;
• comparing a plurality of flows and grouping indexes of all flows, all fields of said flows with the same exact value being matched;
• generating a table for each group of said indexes;
• and
• storing a predetermined flow priority with each flow index in said table;
• said groups of indexes being bounded by a number of combinations of fields of said plurality of flows plus one additional group of indexes.

An apparatus comprising:

• a plurality of processor cores, configured to:
• generate a plurality of flow exact patterns based on an associated plurality of flows from a flow table;
• compare a plurality of flows and grouping indexes of all flows, all exact fields of said plurality of flows having the same exact value being matched;
• generate a table for each group of said indexes;
• and
• store a predetermined flow priority, with each flow index, in said table;
• said groups of indexes being bounded by a number of combinations of fields of said plurality of flows plus one additional group of indexes.

A method of selecting a highest priority flow from a plurality of flows, said method comprising:

• generating a plurality of flow exact patterns, based on an associated flow table, for grouping flows based on similar exact value fields;
• utilizing a parallel flow selection, based on said plurality of flow exact patterns, for selecting a highest priority flow from said plurality of flow exact patterns;
• distributing said plurality of flows equally among a plurality of at least one of processors and processor cores;
• performing a first iteration of each of the at least one of the processors and processor cores through comparing assigned flows to select a flow with the highest priority;
• and
• performing a second iteration of comparing each of the at least one of the processors and processor cores output of highest priority flow to another of the at least one of the processor and processor core output to select said highest priority flow;
• said flow exact patterns comprising the maximum combinations of said flows from said flow table, based on a binomial coefficient calculation, plus one additional entry;
• said binomial coefficient calculation being the number of field combinations of said flows, from said flow table, associated with said fields.

An apparatus comprising:

• a plurality of processor cores, configured to:
• generate a plurality of flow exact patterns based on an associated plurality of flows from a flow table;
• select a highest priority flow utilizing a parallel flow selection based on said plurality of flow exact patterns;
• distribute a plurality of flows equally among said plurality of processor cores;
• perform a first iteration of each processor core through comparing assigned flows to select a flow with a highest priority as output;
• and
• perform a second iteration of comparing said output from each processor core to select a flow with a highest priority as output;
• said flow exact patterns comprising the maximum combinations of said flows from said flow table, based on a binomial coefficient calculation, plus one additional entry;
• said binomial coefficient calculation being the number of field combinations of said flows, from said flow table, associated with said fields.