US 12,425,341 B2
Longest prefix matching
Guy Soffer, Lod Business Park (IL)
Assigned to ETHERNITY NETWORKS, Airport City (IL)
Filed by Ethernity Networks
Filed on Sep. 6, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/929,756.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/260,933, filed on Sep. 6, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2024/0015102 A1, Jan. 11, 2024
Int. Cl. H04L 45/748 (2022.01); H04L 45/48 (2022.01)
CPC H04L 45/748 (2013.01) [H04L 45/48 (2013.01)] 23 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for routing using longest prefix matching, the method comprising:
receiving a packet associated with a packet destination address;
scanning, using the packet destination address, a tree that comprises multiple nodes to find a longest matching destination address prefix; wherein the multiple nodes comprises leaf nodes and non-leaf (NL) nodes; wherein the NL nodes are associated with node boundary values that represent boundaries of destination address ranges, the destination address ranges are spanned by destination addresses prefixes of a routing table; and
applying at least one routing decision, based on the longest matching destination address prefix;
wherein the NL nodes comprise parent NL nodes, each parent NL node has NL children nodes; wherein each parent NL node is associated with links for accessing its NL children nodes and also associated with NL children node pointers that point to its NL children nodes; and
introducing one or more changes in values of one or more of the boundaries of destination address ranges, wherein the tree implements a routing table, while maintaining links to the multiple nodes unchanged.