Dynamically tunable heterogeneous latencies in switch or router chips

1. A method for dynamically tuning heterogeneous latencies of a device, the method comprising:

receiving, at an input port of the device, a packet via a network;

determining a plurality of values corresponding to a plurality of qualifying parameters associated with the packet, the plurality of qualifying parameters including a pipeline-based qualifying parameter;

using the plurality of values corresponding to the plurality of qualifying parameters to generate a latency mode selector value;

allocating a latency mode of a plurality of latency modes to a processing pipeline of the device based on the latency mode selector value, wherein the processing pipeline allows changing a respective latency of the processing pipeline by including or bypassing individual features of a plurality of features accessible by that pipeline based on look up results; and

determining a selected pipeline for processing the packet based on a value corresponding to the pipeline-based qualifying parameter.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the device comprises one of a network switch or a network router.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of qualifying parameters associated with the packet comprise at least some of a feature-based, a port-based, a pipeline-based, a stage-based, a service-level agreement (SLA)-based, and a rate-based qualifying parameters.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein a value corresponding to the feature-based qualifying parameter is determined based on packet information.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the packet information includes IP-header information, media-access control (MAC) address, EtherType, virtual local access network (VLAN), layer-4 information, and user defined fields of a data frame of the packet.

6. The method of claim 3 , wherein a value corresponding to the stage-based qualifying parameter determines one or more stages that can be enabled or disabled for the packet.

7. The method of claim 3 , wherein a value corresponding to the SLA-based qualifying parameter is determined based on customer specific information.

8. The method of claim 3 , wherein a value corresponding to the rate-based qualifying parameter is determined based on at least one of a network traffic rate or an available bandwidth.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising allocating the plurality of latency modes to the packet based on a hybrid selector value that corresponds to a hybrid mode.

10. A device with dynamically tunable heterogeneous latencies, the device comprising:

an input port configured to receive a packet via a network; and

a processing module configured to:

determine a plurality of values corresponding to a plurality of qualifying parameters associated with the packet based on at least packet information, wherein the plurality of qualifying parameters includes at least a pipeline-based qualifying parameter;

use the plurality of values corresponding to the plurality of qualifying parameters to generate a latency mode selector value;

allocate a latency mode of a plurality of latency modes to a processing pipeline of the device based on the latency mode selector value, wherein the processing pipeline allows changing a respective latency of the processing pipeline by including or bypassing individual features of a plurality of features accessible by that pipeline based on look up results; and

determine a selected pipeline for processing the packet based on a value corresponding to the pipeline-based qualifying parameter.

11. The device of claim 10 , wherein the device comprises one of a network switch or a network router, and wherein the network comprises one of the Internet or a private network.

12. The device of claim 10 , wherein the processing module is configured to determine the plurality of values corresponding to the plurality of qualifying parameters further including at least some of a port-based, a pipeline-based, a stage-based, a service-level agreement (SLA)-based, and a rate-based qualifying parameters.

13. The device of claim 12 , wherein the processing module is configured to determine a value corresponding to the feature-based qualifying parameter based on the packet information.

14. The device of claim 13 , wherein the packet information includes IP-header information, media-access control (MAC) address, EtherType, virtual local access network (VLAN), layer-4 information, and user defined fields of a data frame of the packet.

15. The device of claim 12 , wherein the processing module is configured to determine a value corresponding to the stage-based qualifying parameter that determines one or more stages that can be enabled or disabled for the packet.

16. The device of claim 12 , wherein the processing module is configured to determine a value corresponding to the SLA-based qualifying parameter based on customer specific information.

17. The device of claim 12 , wherein the processing module is configured to determine a value corresponding to the rate-based qualifying parameter based on at least one of a network traffic rate or an available bandwidth.

18. The device of claim 10 , wherein the processing module is configured to allocate the plurality of latency modes to the packet based on a hybrid selector value that corresponds to a hybrid mode.

19. A system for dynamically tuning heterogeneous latencies, the system comprising:

memory; and

one or more processors coupled to the memory and configured to execute one or more program modules to perform:

receiving a packet;

determining a plurality of values corresponding to a plurality of qualifying parameters associated with the packet based on at least one of a network traffic rate or an available bandwidth, wherein the plurality of qualifying parameters includes at least a rate-based qualifying parameter;

using the plurality of values corresponding to the plurality of qualifying

parameters to generate a latency mode selector value;

allocating a latency mode of a plurality of latency modes to a processing pipeline of the device based on the latency mode selector value, wherein the processing pipeline allows changing a respective latency of the processing pipeline by including or bypassing individual features of a plurality of features accessible by that pipeline based on look up results; and

determining a selected pipeline for processing the packet based on a value corresponding to the pipeline-based qualifying parameter.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein the system comprises one or more network switches or routers or a switch/router-based system, wherein the plurality of qualifying parameters associated with the packet further comprise at least some of a feature-based, a port-based, a pipeline-based, a stage-based, and a service-level agreement (SLA) based qualifying parameters, and wherein a value corresponding to the feature-based qualifying parameter is further determined based on packet information including IP-header information, media-access control (MAC) address, EtherType, virtual local access network (VLAN), layer-4 information, and user defined fields of a data frame of the packet.