Apparatus and method for routing data packets through a communications network
US6553002B1 · kind B1 · utility
112Cited by
6References
16Claims
0Family size
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Aug 29, 1997 |
| Grant date | Apr 22, 2003 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Aug 29, 2017 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L45/54
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A method and apparatus for determining the next router that a data packet is transmitted to on its way to a destination host by traversing a routing table using a hardware search engine and a unique search tree. The step of traversing each node in the search tree takes only one memory cycle, decreasing in half the time it takes to search a routing table and thus forward data packets on a system of computer networks. This is accomplished by storing the decision bit for each node in its parent node rather than in the node itself The apparatus may use a hardware search engine to search the routing table.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.