Method and apparatus for maintaining netflow statistics using an associative memory to identify and maintain netflows
US6871265B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Feb 20, 2002 |
| Grant date | Mar 22, 2005 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Aug 16, 2022 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L43/08
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
Methods and apparatus are disclosed for maintaining netflow statistics using an associative memory to identify and maintain netflows. A lookup operation is performed on a set of associative memory entries to produce an associative memory result directly or after a subsequent memory read operation. In response to the associative memory result corresponding to a not found condition, an entry is added to the set of associative memory entries. Otherwise, a statistics entry in the set of statistics is updated based on the associative memory result. In one implementation, the associative memory is programmed with a set of permanent netflow entries and a set of dynamic or nonpermanent netflow entries, which are maintained in the form of a queue or ring buffer. In one embodiment, when the number of dynamic entries exceeds a threshold value, one or more of the dynamic entries and their corresponding statistics values are flushed.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.