Importance

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Abstract

A method and apparatus for searching an electronically stored table of information including a plurality of table entries and facilitating high speed searching of a table to provide a longest matching entry. The table searching method uses at least one memory unit having a table of information including a plurality of data entries. The table of information has a plurality of search keys associated with the plurality of data entries and the plurality of search keys form a tree structure based on a prefix length for each of the search keys. The plurality of search keys are expanded such that each of the plurality of search keys has two lowest level search keys associated therewith that cover a lowest level of the tree structure. A binary search of the lowest level search keys is performed based on a search value to determine a longest prefix match. A data entry of the plurality of data entries is output based on said longest prefix match. The method is also applicable to routing data in an internet router where the routing of data packets depends on address information stored in the table of information.

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First Claim