Network routing apparatus
A network routing apparatus in which packet forwarding units for performing a packet forwarding process are arranged in parallel to one another, a packet distribution unit for distributing packets to the packet forwarding units arranged in parallel to one another, a packet rearrangement unit for rearranging outputs of the packet forwarding units are provided in the network routing apparatus, and packet retrieving units for retrieving packet headers in the packet forwarding units are further arranged in parallel to one another.
1. A network routing method for use in a network routing apparatus which includes a plurality of packet forwarding units per outer network interface for connecting between a plurality of network routing apparatuses, with each of said packet forwarding units routing packets received from a network via a corresponding one of the outer network interfaces, comprising:
a step of distributing packets received by one of the network interfaces into the plurality of packet forwarding units corresponding thereto;
a step of performing a process of forwarding the packets thus distributed in each of the packet forwarding units, said process including retrieval of an address of a next routing apparatus in a network to which each packet thus distributed is to be forwarded; and
a step of rearranging the plurality of packets performed with the process of forwarding in the packet forwarding units, based on the order in which the plurality of packets were received by the network interface corresponding thereto.
2. The network routing method according to claim 1 , wherein the step of performing the process of forwarding the packets comprises:
a substep of extracting header information from the packets thus distributed;
a substep of distributing the header information thus extracted;
a substep of retrieving the address of the next routing apparatus to which the packet thus distributed is to be forwarded in the network, based on the header information thus distributed; and
a substep of rearranging results of retrieving the address of the next routing apparatus.
3. The network routing method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a step of receiving the packets from a network interface provided in a network routing apparatus and connected with the network, or from a switch provided in a network routing apparatus; and
a step of outputting the packets thus rearranged to the network interface or switch from which the packets are received.
4. The network routing method according to claim 1 , wherein
the step of distributing the packets includes a process of giving packet sequence numbers to the packets in distributing the packets in parallel to the plurality of packet forwarding units,
the step of performing the process of forwarding the packets includes a process of holding the packets and their packet sequence numbers during the parallel process of forwarding the packets, and
the step of rearranging the packets includes a process of rearranging the packets in an order of the packet sequence numbers.
5. The network routing method according to claim 4 , wherein, in the step of performing the process of forwarding the packets, at least one of a number of packets forwarded, a number of bytes forwarded, a number of packets aborted and a number of bytes aborted is counted.
6. The network routing method according to claim 4 , wherein, in the step of distributing the packets, the packets are distributed by executing at least one of a round-robin method and an out-of-order method.
7. The network routing method according to claim 1 , wherein, in the step of distributing the packets, the packets are distributed by executing a hash method.