Apparatus and method using vector table indirection to maintain forwarding tables in a router

摘要

A router for interconnecting external devices comprising: 1) a switch fabric; and 2) R routing nodes coupled to the switch fabric. Each of the R routing nodes exchanges data packets with the external devices via network interface ports and with other routing nodes via the switch fabric. A first routing node comprises: i) an inbound network processor for receiving incoming data packets from a network interface port; ii) an outbound network processor for transmitting data packets to the network interface port; and iii) a shared memory accessible by the inbound and outbound network processors for storing a current trie tree search table and a current vector table used to index into the trie tree search table. A control plane processor generates an updated vector table to replace the current vector table and notifies the inbound and outbound network processors that the updated vector table is available.