Database Management System and Method of Using it to Transmit Packets

• US 20080016243A1
• Filed: 07/11/2007
• Published: 01/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/15/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: D-Link Corporation
• Original Assignee: D-Link Corporation
• Inventors: Verrilli, Colin, Vaidhyanathan, Natarajan, Basso, Claude
• Granted Patent: US 7,873,027 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/238
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/56 Packet switching systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/54 Organization of routing tables

Abstract

A forwarding table, in a network device such as a router, used to forward packets in a communications network includes indicia whose state determine whether information contained in the forwarding table or information contained in the header portion of a packet is to be used to forward the packet to the next hop (i.e. next point in the route).

Claims

1. A method to route packets in a communications network including the acts of:

providing, in a router, a forwarding table including at least a destination address subnet field populated with predefined addresses, a Next Hop Address Field, an Outgoing Interface field populated with outgoing port identification numbers, and a flag field populated with at least one indicium set to one of two states, wherein the indicium is set to a first state for aggregation of multiple end stations to a single entry of the indicium;

receiving a packet in said router;

parsing the packet with a microprocessor to determine the destination address in the packet;

searching the table with the microprocessor to detect any entry with a predefined address matching the destination address in the packet;

if a match is found, examining the indicium; and

forwarding the packet based upon information in the forwarding table if the indicium is in a second state.

2. The method of claim 1 further including the act of forwarding the packet based upon information in the packet if the indicium is in the first state.

3. The method in claim 1 further including the act of forwarding the packet based upon information in the packet and information in the table if the indicium is set to the first state.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the first state is a “

set”

of the indicium.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the second state is a “

reset”

of the indicium.

6. The method in claims 1 or 2 wherein the information includes destination address.

7. A method to forward packets in a communications network including acts of:

receiving a packet in a router;

determining destination address carried in said packet;

searching a forwarding table to identify an entry with a destination address matching the destination address in the packet;

examining an indicium associated with the matched entry, wherein the indicium is set based upon aggregation of multiple end stations for the matched entry; and

forwarding the packet based upon information contained in the forwarding table if the indicia is in a first state.

8. The method of claim 7 further including the act of forwarding the packet based upon information in the packet if the indicium is in a second state.

9. A program product including:

a medium on which a computer program is recorded, said computer program including;

first code module containing computer code that examines a packet to determine the destination address in said packet;

second code module that scans a forwarding table to detect an entry having a destination address matching the destination address in the packet; and

third code module that forwards the packet based upon information in the table if an indicium in a matched entry is in a first state, wherein the indicium is in a second state for aggregation of multiple end stations to the matched entry.

10. The program product of claim 9 further including fourth code module that forwards the packet based upon information in the packet if the indicia is in the second state.

11. A device that forwards packets in a communications network including:

a forwarding table including a destination address subnet field populated with predefined addresses, a flag field populated with at least one indicia set to one of two states based upon aggregation of multiple end stations to a single entry of the indicium, a Next Hop Address Field populated with destination addresses, and Outgoing Interface field populated with outgoing port ids; and

a controller receiving a packet and forwarding said packet based upon information in the packet if the at least one indicia is set to a first state.