Database management system and method of using it to transmit packets
View Patent ↗A forwarding table, in a network device such as a router, used to forward packets in a communications network includes indicia whose state determine whether information contained in the forwarding table or information contained in the header portion of a packet is to be used to forward the packet to the next hop (i.e. next point in the route).
1. A method to route packets in a communications network including the acts of:
providing, in a router, a forwarding table including at least a destination address subnet field populated with predefined addresses, a flag field populated with at least one indicium set to one of two states, a Next Hop Address Field populated with destination addresses, and Outgoing Interface field populated with outgoing port ids;
receiving a packet in said router;
parsing the packet with a microprocessor to determine the destination address in the packet;
searching the table with the microprocessor to detect any entry with a predefined address matching the destination address in the packet;
if a match is found, examining the indicium;
forwarding the packet based upon information in the forwarding table if the indicium is in a first state; and
forwarding the packet based upon information in the packet if the indicium is in a second state.
2. The method in claim 1 further including the act of forwarding the packet based upon information in the table if the indicium is set to the second state.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the first state is a “reset” of the indicium.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein the second state is a “set” of the indicium.
5. The method in claim 1 wherein the information includes destination address.