US 11,924,108 B2
Processing packets by an offload platform adjunct to a packet switching device
Ijsbrand Wijnands, Leuven (BE); Neale David Raymond Ranns, Basingstoke (GB); David Delano Ward, Somerset, WI (US); and David Richard Barach, Mount Dora, FL (US)
Assigned to Cisco Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US)
Filed by Cisco Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US)
Filed on Jul. 27, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/360,342.
Application 18/360,342 is a continuation of application No. 18/297,599, filed on Apr. 7, 2023.
Application 18/297,599 is a continuation of application No. 17/814,803, filed on Jul. 25, 2022, granted, now 11,627,086, issued on Apr. 11, 2023.
Application 17/814,803 is a continuation of application No. 16/528,342, filed on Jul. 31, 2019, granted, now 11,398,983, issued on Jul. 26, 2022.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/755,510, filed on Nov. 4, 2018.
Prior Publication US 2023/0370382 A1, Nov. 16, 2023
Int. Cl. H04L 12/26 (2006.01); H04L 45/50 (2022.01); H04L 47/125 (2022.01); H04L 47/17 (2022.01); H04L 47/70 (2022.01)
CPC H04L 47/125 (2013.01) [H04L 45/507 (2013.01); H04L 47/17 (2013.01); H04L 47/825 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A packet switching device comprising:
a processor;
a plurality of network interfaces operative to send and receive packets;
a packet forwarding mechanism comprising:
a forwarding information base; and
one or more network processors operative to receive and forward packets from the plurality of network interfaces;
an adjunct packet processing offload platform internal to the packet switching device, the adjunct packet processing offload platform comprising:
one or more processors; and
a memory,
wherein the adjunct packet processing offload platform is a compute platform adjunct to the packet forwarding mechanism,
wherein the packet forwarding mechanism is operative to:
forward select packets received on one or more of the plurality of network interfaces to the adjunct packet processing offload platform based on one or more attributes of the select packets,
wherein the adjunct packet processing offload platform is operative to:
maintain a forwarding data structure comprising packet forwarding information mapping respective IP addresses to corresponding egress forwarding values, each forwarding value associated with a corresponding one of the plurality of network interfaces,
receive the select packets from the packet forwarding mechanism, and
offload-packet process the select packets resulting in offload-processed packets including an egress forwarding value,
wherein the offload-packet processing includes:
performing a forwarding lookup operation in the forwarding data structure resulting in an identification of the egress forwarding value that effectively identifies an egress interface of the plurality of network interfaces, and
sending the offload-processed packets and the egress forwarding value to the packet forwarding mechanism.