PACKET EXTRACTION OPTIMIZATION IN A NETWORK PROCESSOR
First Claim
1. A method of processing a packet comprising:
- receiving a first segment of a packet;
determining, based on the first segment, beats of a second segment of the packet containing portions of a key;
determining a start time at which the key may begin to be forwarded as a continuous stream, the start time being based on a prediction of when the portions of the key in the second segment will be received; and
initiating forwarding the key at the start time to a processing cluster configured to operate rule matching for the packet.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A packet processor provides for rule matching of packets in a network architecture. The packet processor includes a lookup cluster complex having a number of lookup engines and respective on-chip memory units. The on-chip memory stores rules for matching against packet data. A lookup front-end receives lookup requests from a host, and processes these lookup requests to generate key requests for forwarding to the lookup engines. Based on information in the packet, the lookup front-end can optimize start times for sending key requests as a continuous stream with minimal delay. As a result of the rule matching, the lookup engine returns a response message indicating whether a match is found.
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Citations
32 Claims
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1. A method of processing a packet comprising:
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receiving a first segment of a packet; determining, based on the first segment, beats of a second segment of the packet containing portions of a key; determining a start time at which the key may begin to be forwarded as a continuous stream, the start time being based on a prediction of when the portions of the key in the second segment will be received; and initiating forwarding the key at the start time to a processing cluster configured to operate rule matching for the packet. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. An apparatus for processing a packet comprising:
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a register configured to receive a first segment of a packet of a packet; a packet header extractor (PHE) configured to; determine, based on the first segment, the beats of a second segment of the packet containing portions of a key, and determine a start time at which the key may begin to be forwarded as a continuous stream, the start time being based on a prediction of when all of the portions of the key in the second segment will be received; and a scheduler output manager configured to initiate forwarding the key at the start time to a processing cluster configured to operate rule matching for the packet. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
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Specification