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:
Jun. 27, 2000
Filed:
Jun. 30, 1997
Ariel Hendel, Cupertino, CA (US);
Leo A Hejza, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Shree Murthy, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Sun Microsystems, Inc., Mountain View, CA (US);
Abstract
A multi-layer network element for forwarding received packets from an input port to one or more output ports. The packet is examined to look for different types of forwarding information. An associative memory is searched once for each type of information. The results from the two searches are combined to forward the packet to the appropriate one or more output ports. The packet may be examined for other information as well to make the forwarding decisions. In one embodiment, the invention examines the packet for layer 2 information as the first type and layer 3, and perhaps some layer 4, information as the second type. The results are merged to determine the most appropriate combination of layer 2 or layer 3 forwarding decisions for the packet.