Method and apparatus for longest match address lookup

摘要

We present a method and apparatus for increasing the depth of a lookup table. The lookup table includes at least two lookup units. A search request for a final result value corresponding to the key is issued to each of the lookup units in parallel. Each of the lookup units performs a multi-level search in parallel for the final result value. The final result value stored in only one of the lookup units is provided by one of the lookup units.