SUGGESTION AND REPLY ARCHITECTURE FOR ROUTE LOOKUP AND PACKET CLASSIFICATION REQUEST

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a packet processing logic in a network unit that conducts packet classification and fast forwarding retrieval for packet filtering. SOLUTION: The packet processing logic includes a request queue receiving a lookup request from a packet processor, a route lookup engine(RLE) and a packet classification engine(PCE). Each request includes an information element from the received packet, the RLE retrieves forwarding information denoting how a packet corresponding to the request is to be sent on the basis of the information element, the PCE executes a classification process and generates classification information relating to the packet corresponding to the request. The forwarding information from the RLE and the classification information from the PCE are combined with respect to each request into one result stored in a result queue. Each request is supplied to a packet processor in one communication transaction.