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Querying a traffic forwarding table

  • US 9,531,598 B2
  • Filed: 04/17/2014
  • Issued: 12/27/2016
  • Est. Priority Date: 04/19/2013
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A computer implemented method of querying a traffic forwarding table at a device in a computer network, the traffic forwarding table having entries which are accessible using a key, the method comprising at a monitor computer connected to the computer network:

  • identifying a forwarding address for use in querying the traffic forwarding table, wherein the forwarding address constitutes only part of a key and wherein a remaining part of the key is an embedded index in the traffic forwarding table;

    combining the forwarding address with a plurality of embedded indices of the traffic forwarding table to generate a set of keys for querying the traffic forwarding table;

    generating a first query message for the forwarding table using at least one of said set of keys;

    transmitting the first query message from the monitor computer to the device via the computer network;

    receiving a result message from the device, the result message containing a next hop address and an egress port identifier, said egress port identifier being equal to zero;

    generating a second query message using at least one of a new set of keys, wherein the new set of keys is generated by combining the next hop address with the plurality of embedded indices; and

    transmitting the second query message to the device.

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