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:
Aug. 17, 1999
Filed:
Jun. 30, 1997
Shimon Muller, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Ariel Hendel, Cupertino, CA (US);
Louise Yeung, San Carlos, CA (US);
Sun Microsystems, Inc., Mountain View, CA (US);
Abstract
A multi-layer switch search engine architecture is provided. According to one aspect of the present invention, a switch fabric includes a search engine, and a packet header processing unit. The search engine may be coupled to a forwarding database memory and one or more input ports. The search engine is configured to schedule and perform accesses to the forwarding database memory and to transfer forwarding decisions to the one or more input ports. The header processing unit is coupled to the search engine and includes an arbitrated interface for coupling to the one or more input ports. The header processing unit is configured to receive a packet header from one or more of the input ports and is further configured to construct a search key for accessing the forwarding database memory based upon a predetermined portion of the packet header. The predetermined portion of the packet header is selected based upon a packet class with which the packet header is associated.