US 12,425,340 B2
Single lookup entry for symmetric flows
Eliel Louzoun, Jerusalem (IL); Ben-Zion Friedman, Jerusalem (IL); Eli Sorin, Mitzpe Aviv (IL); and Nir Haber, Haifa (IL)
Assigned to Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US)
Filed by Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US)
Filed on Oct. 25, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/510,251.
Application 17/510,251 is a continuation of application No. 15/476,638, filed on Mar. 31, 2017, granted, now 11,159,427.
Prior Publication US 2022/0045950 A1, Feb. 10, 2022
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. H04L 45/745 (2022.01); H04L 69/22 (2022.01)
CPC H04L 45/745 (2013.01) [H04L 69/22 (2013.01)] 15 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An apparatus comprising:
a switch comprising:
an interface and circuitry, coupled to the interface, wherein the circuitry is to:
process a packet header from a packet in a bi-directional flow, wherein the bi-directional flow comprises communications traversing a same network path in opposite directions,
access a single entry based on a first data, address information in the packet header, and a direction of the packet within the bi-directional flow, wherein:
the single entry is to specify an action for the packet to indicate handling instructions,
the action for the packet is based on a direction of the packet within the bi-directional flow,
the first data includes the pointer that addresses the location of the action in the action table based on the direction of the packet,
the first data includes an index corresponding to the bi-directional flow,
a location of the action in an action table is based on a direction of the packet and the location is associated with a pointer that identifies the action and at least one of other action to perform on the packet, and
cause performance of the specified action, wherein the specified action comprises one or more of:
security processing of the packet,
routing of the packet,
write contents of the packet to memory for use by a virtual entity,
packet drop based on packet drop criteria being met by the packet header,
network tag modification based on network tag modification criteria being met by the packet header, or
determine network forwarding next hop based on network forwarding criteria being met by the packet header.