Method and Apparatus for Coding a User Defined Constant into a Key Composition Rule Using Variable Length Command

摘要

A method and apparatus are provided for classifying received network frames (234) by extracting frame header data (e.g., n-tuple) which is combined with a key insert value (e.g., embedded prefix value “OP01, OP02, . . . OP0OP1”) to generate a lookup key (217), where the key insert value is generated by decoding a key composition rule (212) to extract a constant value (OP0) and a repeat value (OP1), and then replicating the constant value one or more times specified by the repeat value.

主权项

1. A method for classifying received network frames, comprising:
receiving a frame; retrieving from memory a first key composition rule comprising a first operand defining a first constant value, a second operand defining a first repeat value; generating a key insert value from the first and second operands by replicating the first constant value one or more times specified by the first repeat value; and generating a lookup key by combining the key insert value with an n-tuple extracted from the frame.