Multicast forwarding table processor
US6772222B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Apr 7, 2000 |
| Grant date | Aug 3, 2004 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Apr 7, 2020 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L49/602
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A multicast processor minimizes the software resource needed to process multicast protocol and broadcast protocol for bridges and routers in a network processor based environment. The multicast forwarding processor receives multicast and broadcast Layer 2/Layer 3/Layer 4 (L2/L3/L4) frames from a network processor. During reception, a frame layer flag, a unicast/multicast flag, and a frame position flag are set. A multitask forwarding table is accessed, and the frame, unicast/multicast, and frame position flags are stored and updated. The frame, unicast/multicast, and frame position flags are then sent to a frame forwarding processor. The L2/L3/L4 frames are routed to an L2 learning processor. The L2/L3/L4 frames are received from the frame forwarding processor, and the L2/L3/L4 frames are sent to an L3/L4 processor for frame header modification. The modified L2/L3/L4 frames are received from said L3/L4 processor, and the modified L2/L3/L4 frames are sent to an L2 filter processor.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.