Patent attributes
In the case of a “distributed” integrated network node (architecture), a specific judgment process cannot be executed in any routing and transferring unit. The routing and transferring unit has been required to share such judgment process related information with an enhanced processing unit or with other routing and transferring units. Thus the manufacturing cost has increased when using an enhanced processing unit and the processing speed has been lowered unavoidably when cooperation is required among routing and transferring units. Those have been conventional problems. Furthermore, if any flow is disposed during a transfer from a packet transferring unit provided in a routing and transferring unit to a processing unit, the packet is disposed regardless of the packet priority. This has also been another conventional problem. According to the present invention, however, it is ruled that a packet related to a specific judgment process is always transmitted to a specific routing and transferring unit from a line interface unit. And if a flow is inputted and it is over the transferring capacity between a line interface unit and a routing and transferring unit, the line interface unit analyzes the packet header and determines the type, transport priority, and disposal priority of the packet.
