Sharing of internal pipeline resources of a network processor with external devices

In a system having at least two network processors, wherein each network processor has a plurality of processing modules;

• a method of processing a received data packet, the method comprising:
• receiving, by a source network processor, the received data packet;
• determining, by the source network processor, zero or more corresponding processing modules of the source network processor for processing the received data packet, wherein the zero or more corresponding processing modules are selected to process the received data packet in a task pipeline based on one or more tasks associated with the received data packet and the tasks are transmitted to the processing modules on a task ring of a network processor;
• determining, by the source network processor, whether processing of the data packet should be completed by one or more destination network processors;
• generating, by the source network processor, a partially processed data packet based on the received data packet;
• inserting, by the processing modules, a task message in the partially processed data packet;
• transmitting, by the source network processor, the partially processed data packet and the task message to one or more destination network processors;
• receiving, by the one or more destination network processors, the partially processed data packet and the task message;
• extract the task message from the partially processed data packet;
• and
• using, by the one or more destination network processors, the extracted task message to further process the partially processed data packet, thereby extending the task ring of the source network processor to the one or more destination network processors.

A non-transitory machine readable storage medium, having encoded thereon program code, wherein, when the program code is executed by a machine, the machine implements a method of processing a received data packet in a system having at least two network processors, wherein each network processor has a plurality of processing modules, the method comprising:

• receiving, by a source network processor, the received data packet;
• determining, by the source network processor, zero or more corresponding processing modules of the source network processor for processing the received data packet wherein the zero or more corresponding processing modules are selected to process the received data packet in a task pipeline based on one or more tasks associated with the received data packet and the tasks are transmitted to the processing modules on a task ring of a network processor;
• determining, by the source network processor, whether processing of the data packet should be completed by one or more destination network processors;
• generating, by the source network processor, a partially processed data packet based on the received data packet;
• inserting, by the processing modules, a task message in the partially processed data packet;
• transmitting, by the source network processor, the partially processed data packet and the task message to one or more destination network processors;
• receiving, by the one or more destination network processors, the partially processed data packet and the task message;
• extract the task message from the partially processed data packet;
• and
• using, by the one or more destination network processors, the extracted task message to further process the partially processed data packet, thereby extending the task ring of the source network processor to the one or more destination network processors.