Mutual table for enhancing software and hardware switched packet flow forwarding

Abstract

The invention relates to a router or switch in a broadband network operating through packet flow forwarding. The router provides a CPU switched software flow () and a hardware switched accelerated flow () in accordance with Hierarchical Flow Forwarding (HEF) by utilizing a mutual flow table () partitioned into at least a hardware part (), an intermediate part () and a software part () for flow forwarding. The table is examined on a regular basis determined by a time period, and sorted by the ratio of number of packets per time period. It is filled up with the highest ratios in the hardware part (), the intermediate ratios in the intermediate part () and the lowest ratios in the software part (). Those packet flows that qualified for the intermediate flow () in a previous examining remain in their memory space if they still qualify for the intermediate part (). This prevents the exchange between memory spaces () within the intermediate part of the table relieving the CPU from this workload.