MEMORY FOR INFORMATION SEARCH THROUGH PREFIX ANALYSIS, IN PARTICULAR FOR BUILDING ROUTING TABLES FOR NODES OF HIGH SPEED COMMUNICATION NETWORKS, SUCH AS THE INTERNET NETWORK

摘要

A memory for searching information through prefix analysis, in particular forbuilding routing tables for nodes of high speed communication networks, suchasInternet network, comprises a memory element (M1) which stores a set ofinformationitems associated each one to a mask information indicative of the number ofsignificantcharacters in the respective prefix and to a target information. For theimplementationof a search criterion based on the longest prefix match, each cell comprisesaninformation field that provides either an address of a next row for thecontinuation of asearch or an information relating to a target reached, and a pair of flags(GO,TARGET) specifying the contents of the information field. An auxiliary vector(AUX),which comprises as many cells as many the memory rows are, is arranged tostore,when the flags in a cell in the memory element indicate the reaching of atargettogether with the need of prosecuting search operations in a next row, thetargetinformation in its cell associated to said next row. (Fig. 1).