METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SEARCHING A FILTERING DATABASE WITH ONE SEARCH OPERATION

摘要

Multiple searches of a filtering database increase the time for filtering adata packet received by a switch. A switch including a translator and afiltering database for performing a single search is presented. The translatorprovides a translated identifier for an identifier associated with a datapacket received by the switch. The translated identifier includes a groupidentifier corresponding to a virtual LAN group (FID) and a group membernumber corresponding to an identified virtual LAN (VID). The filter data basestores a static entry and a dynamic entry. The static entry stores aforwarding decision for the data packet associated with the translatedidentifier. The dynamic entry stores a forwarding decision for the data packetassociated with the group identifier included in the translated identifier andthe group member number set to don't care.