Apparatus and method for maintaining forwarding information in a bridge or router using multiple free queues having associated free space sizes
US5649109A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Oct 22, 1992 |
| Grant date | Jul 15, 1997 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Oct 22, 2012 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L45/745
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A forwarding information management system for a bridge or router is disclosed, including a method and apparatus for maintaining forwarding entries within a forwarding table. The forwarding table is allocated into forwarding entries, and the forwarding entries organized into forwarding entry sets. A set of free queues is used to manage the free space segments in the forwarding table that are not allocated into forwarding entries. Each free queue maintains pointers to free space segments of a particular size. A forwarding entry adding process creates a new forwarding entry set including a new forwarding entry, selects a non-empty free queue for free space segments large enough to hold the new forwarding entry set, and writes the new forwarding entry set one of the free space segments. Also included in the system are a forwarding entry deleting process, a learning process providing input for the forwarding entry adding process, and an aging process providing input for the forwarding entry deleting process. In an example embodiment, a hash table is used to locate the forwarding entry sets in the forwarding table. In a preferred embodiment, forwarding entries within the forwarding entr…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.