The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 05, 1998
Filed:
Aug. 30, 1996
Stephen A Hauser, Burlington, MA (US);
Jeffrey L Williams, Hopkinton, MA (US);
Fujitsu Network Communications, Inc., Richardson, TX (US);
Fujitsu Limited, Kawasaki, JP;
Abstract
An improved method and apparatus for recognizing, classifying and processing frames received at a frame processor in a computer network is disclosed. Following receipt of a frame at an input port of a frame processor, source and destination addresses are parsed from the frame. A plurality of lookup tables are provided in a memory, each of which contains a search field and a classification key field. Source or destination addresses are stored in the respective search fields along with other information associated with the frame and a compact classification key is stored in the corresponding classification key field. Searches are performed of the respective search fields within the respective lookup tables to determine whether a match exists between the each of the destination and source addresses and other information and the search field within the lookup tables. In the event the searches yield a match, a classification key associated with each respective address is retrieved. Classification keys corresponding to addresses thus retrieved are concatenated and the concatenated value is employed as the basis for a further search of the search field of another one of the lookup tables to identify a classification key which is employed to specify the manner of further processing of the received frame.