Packet steering

摘要

A method for steering packets, including receiving a packet and determining parameters to be used in steering the packet to a specific destination, in one or more initial steering stages, based on one or more packet specific attributes. The method further includes determining an identity of the specific destination of the packet in one or more subsequent steering stages, governed by the parameters determined in the one or more initial stages and one or more packet specific attributes, and forwarding the packet to the determined specific destination.

主权项

1. A method of steering a packet, comprising:
receiving a plurality of packets by a packet steering unit; and for each of the received packets:
performing one or more initial steering lookup stages, each initial stage including a table lookup with a lookup key based on one or more packet specific attributes, the one or more initial steering lookup stages resulting in determining one or more fields of the packet, whose values for the received packet are to be used in a subsequent table lookup stage;extracting, from the packet, specific values of the one or more fields determined in the one or more initial steering lookup stages;generating a lookup key responsive to the extracted specific values;determining a specific destination of the packet in a subsequent steering stage including a table lookup governed by the generated lookup key; andforwarding the packet to the specific destination determined based on the lookup key generated responsive to the values of the one or more fields determined in the one or more initial stages, such that different packets are forwarded to destinations determined based on values of different fields of the packet.