Method, system and computer program product for processing packets at forwarder interfaces

Abstract

A system and method for processing information transport elements, such as ethernet packets, at interfaces to a forwarder. Modules that implement processing logic are allocated per interface and per direction (i.e., inbound or outbound). At any given interface, a series of modules would be used to process inbound packets; likewise, a set of modules would be used to process outbound packets. For inbound packets, the modules allocated for inbound processing are executed when the packet is received from the interface, before sending the packet on to the forwarder. For packets that are outbound from the forwarder, the modules allocated for outbound processing are applied when the packet is sent by the forwarder, prior to any other processing, e.g., queuing to hardware. To assign modules to different interfaces at a forwarder, a registration process is performed during the system start-up process, or dynamically at runtime. For any given interface and direction, modules can be prioritized, so that a packet is processed sequentially in a specific order, one module after the other.