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. 14, 2005
Filed:
Apr. 11, 2000
Anthony Matteo Gallo, Apex, NC (US);
Natarajan Vaidhyanathan, Durham, NC (US);
Gail Irene Woodland, Chapel Hill, NC (US);
Anthony Matteo Gallo, Apex, NC (US);
Natarajan Vaidhyanathan, Durham, NC (US);
Gail Irene Woodland, Chapel Hill, NC (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
Certain Layer 3 protocol data frames propagated on a network are typically processed by a control point (CP) in a network switch. The logical bridging and routing functions required in this processing typically entail network device address look-ups in routing tables and address databases. Using the CP to perform these look-ups is expensive in terms of processor cycles and memory. To offload the CP, the bridging functions are performed a network processor in the switch. The network processor has specialized software and hardware enabling it to perform the required database look-ups faster and more efficiently than the CP.