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. 27, 2002
Filed:
Mar. 31, 1999
Glen H. Lowe, Union City, CA (US);
Edmund Chen, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Claude G. Hayek, Huntington Beach, CA (US);
3Com Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and system for filtering multicast packets by a peripheral component. In one embodiment, the present invention uses a peripheral component driver to store in memory a selected hash values corresponding to desired multicast packets. In one embodiment, the peripheral component driver operates on a host computer to which a peripheral component is coupled. Next, when the peripheral component receives an incoming multicast packet, the present invention uses a hash value generator disposed on the peripheral component to determine a hash value for the received multicast packet. The present embodiment then compares the hash value for the received multicast packet with the selected hash values stored in memory. Provided the hash value for the received multicast packet does not match any of the selected hash values stored in the memory, the present embodiment discards the received multicast packet without interrupting the host computer. In so doing, the present embodiment effectively filters multicast packets without requiring constant intervention by the CPU (central processing unit) of the host computer.