Duane Morris LLP
Apparatus and method for scalable and flexible table search in a network switch
A network switch comprises a packet processing pipeline including a plurality of packet processing clusters configured to process a received packet through multiple packet processing stages based on table search/lookup results. The network switch further includes a plurality of search logic units each corresponding one of the plurality of packet processing clusters, wherein each of the search logic units is configured to convert a unified search request of a table from its corresponding packet processing cluster to a plurality table search commands specific to one or more memory clusters that maintain the table, provide the plurality table search commands specific to the memory clusters in parallel and collect and provide the table search results from the memory clusters to the corresponding packet processing cluster. The network switch further includes said one or more memory clusters configured to maintain the table to be searched, search the table in parallel according to the plurality table search commands from the search logic unit, and process and provide the table search results to the search logic unit.
Cavium, Inc.
H H
H04L H04L
inventional inventional
Weihuang Srinath
Wang Atluri