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:
Jul. 06, 2004
Filed:
Apr. 10, 2000
Anthony Matteo Gallo, Apex, NC (US);
Natarajan Vaidhyanathan, Durham, NC (US);
Colin Beaton Verrilli, Apex, NC (US);
Gail Irene Woodland, Chapel Hill, NC (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for processing network frames by embedding control information achieves an efficient frame processing system within a network processor (NP). The layer type of the frame can be quickly determined by the layer processing components of picocode running on the NP by examining control information that is written by ingress processing layers to produce a modified frame format. The frames are routed to appropriate layer processors and processing for certain layers may be bypassed if the picocode determines that no processing is required at that layer. The frame may also be discarded completely by any of the layer processors.