US7586851B2
Expired / Lapsed
US
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Programmable packet parsing processor
Assignee: Cisco Technology Inc
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Filing: 2004-04-26
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Granted: 2009-09-08
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Expires: 2024-04-26
Abstract
Abstract The present invention provides a packet processing device and method. A parsing processor provides instruction-driven content inspection of network packets at 10-Gbps and above with a parsing engine that executes parsing instructions. A flow state unit maintains statefulness of packet flows to allow content inspection across several related network packets. A state-graph unit traces state-graph nodes to keyword indications and/or parsing instructions. The parsing instructions can be derived from a high-level application to emulate user-friendly parsing logic. The parsing processor sends parsed packets to a network processor unit for further processing.
Inventors
- 👤 Rina Panigrahy
- 👤 Jackie Liu
- 👤 Daniel Yu-Kwong Ng
- 👤 Sanjay Jain
- 👤 Nagaraj A. Bagepalli
- 👤 Abhijit Patra
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
US
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-24 12:09
CPC Classifications
H; H04; H04L; H04L63/00; H04L63/02; H04L63/0227; H04L63/0254; H04L63/14; H04L63/1408; H04L69/00; H04L69/22
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 48
Claim 1
Independent Claim
116 words
A packet parsing processor, comprising: a parsing engine having an input to receive a signal that represents a network packet, the parsing engine to perform instruction-driven packet parsing on the packet, responsive to parsing instructions; and a state-graph unit having an input/output coupled to a second input/output of the parsing engine, the state-graph unit to store the parsing instructions, wherein a parsing instruction is associated with a node in a state-graph, the parsing engine executing the parsing instruction responsive to a node match; wherein the parsing engine further comprises a hash unit to store a portion of a parsing state, and wherein the parsing engine generates a key to look-up the portion of the parsing state.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
116 words
A packet parsing processor, comprising: a parsing engine having an input to receive a signal that represents a network packet, the parsing engine to perform instruction-driven packet parsing on the packet, responsive to parsing instructions; and a state-graph unit having an input/output coupled to a second input/output of the parsing engine, the state-graph unit to store the parsing instructions, wherein a parsing instruction is associated with a node in a state-graph, the parsing engine executing the parsing instruction responsive to a node match; wherein the parsing engine further comprises a hash unit to store a portion of a parsing state, and wherein the parsing engine generates a key to look-up the portion of the parsing state.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
32 words
The packet processor of claim 1 , wherein the hash table comprises a TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) flow table and the key comprises a destination IP (Internet Protocol) address and destination port.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
24 words
The packet processor of claim 1 , wherein the parsing engine further comprises a plurality of scratchpads to store data while executing parsing instructions.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
23 words
The packet processor of claim 1 , wherein a portion of the parsing instructions emulate nodes from a software application for application recognition.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
22 words
The packet processor of claim 1 , wherein a parsing instruction comprises an encoded bitmap that represents whether characters have a transition.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
19 words
The packet processor of claim 1 , wherein the state-graph unit comprises an FCRAM (Fast Cycle Random Access Memory).
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
22 words
The packet processor of claim 1 , wherein the parsing engine further comprises a plurality of processing cores to execute parsing instructions.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
43 words
The packet processor of claim 1 , wherein the packet processor is contained within a network device, coupled to a network operating at 10-Gbps or above, network device performing one from the group containing: data packet routing, data packet forwarding, data packet bridging.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
31 words
The packet parsing processor of claim 1 , wherein the packet parsing supports one from the group containing: intrusion detection, quality of service, application recognition, virus detection, and an application-level firewall.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
113 words
A packet parsing processor, comprising: a parsing engine having an input to receive a signal that represents a network packet, the parsing engine to perform instruction-driven packet parsing on the packet, responsive to parsing instructions; and a state-graph unit having an input/output coupled to a second input/output of the parsing engine, the state-graph unit to store the parsing instructions, wherein a parsing instruction is associated with a node in a state-graph, the parsing engine executing the parsing instruction responsive to a node match; and a flow state unit having an input/output coupled to a first input/output of the parsing engine, the flow state unit to maintain a parse state across a packet flow.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
113 words
A packet parsing processor, comprising: a parsing engine having an input to receive a signal that represents a network packet, the parsing engine to perform instruction-driven packet parsing on the packet, responsive to parsing instructions; and a state-graph unit having an input/output coupled to a second input/output of the parsing engine, the state-graph unit to store the parsing instructions, wherein a parsing instruction is associated with a node in a state-graph, the parsing engine executing the parsing instruction responsive to a node match; and a flow state unit having an input/output coupled to a first input/output of the parsing engine, the flow state unit to maintain a parse state across a packet flow.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
25 words
The packet processor of claim 10 , wherein the parsing engine stores the parser state in the flow state unit after parsing the network packet.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
99 words
A packet parsing processor, comprising: means for parsing a network packet responsive to parsing instructions; and means for graphing, coupled to means for regular expression matching, the means for graphing identifying keyword matches between a state-graph and the network packet, wherein a parsing instruction is associated with a node in the state-graph, the means for regular expression matching executing the parsing instruction responsive to a node match; wherein the means for parsing further comprises a means for hashing to store a parsing state, and the means for parsing generates a key to look-up a portion of the parsing state.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
99 words
A packet parsing processor, comprising: means for parsing a network packet responsive to parsing instructions; and means for graphing, coupled to means for regular expression matching, the means for graphing identifying keyword matches between a state-graph and the network packet, wherein a parsing instruction is associated with a node in the state-graph, the means for regular expression matching executing the parsing instruction responsive to a node match; wherein the means for parsing further comprises a means for hashing to store a parsing state, and the means for parsing generates a key to look-up a portion of the parsing state.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
33 words
The packet processor of claim 12 , wherein the means for hashing comprises a TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) hash table and the key comprises a destination IP (Internet Protocol) address and destination port.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
27 words
The packet processor of claim 12 , wherein the means for regular expression matching further comprises a plurality of means for storing data while executing parsing instructions.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
23 words
The packet processor of claim 12 , wherein a portion of the parsing instructions emulate nodes from a software application for application recognition.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
22 words
The packet processor of claim 12 , wherein a parsing instruction comprises an encoded bitmap that represents whether characters have a transition.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
24 words
The packet processor of claim 12 , wherein the means for regular expression matching further comprises a plurality of means for executing parsing instructions.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
28 words
The packet processor of claim 12 , wherein the means for regular expression matching stores the parser state in the means for maintaining after parsing the network packet.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
92 words
A packet parsing processor, comprising: means for parsing a network packet responsive to parsing instructions; and means for graphing, coupled to means for regular expression matching, the means for graphing identifying keyword matches between a state-graph and the network packet, wherein a parsing instruction is associated with a node in the state-graph, the means for regular expression matching executing the parsing instruction responsive to a node match; and means for maintaining, coupled to the means for regular expression matching, the means for maintaining storing parse states for a plurality of packet flows.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
92 words
A packet parsing processor, comprising: means for parsing a network packet responsive to parsing instructions; and means for graphing, coupled to means for regular expression matching, the means for graphing identifying keyword matches between a state-graph and the network packet, wherein a parsing instruction is associated with a node in the state-graph, the means for regular expression matching executing the parsing instruction responsive to a node match; and means for maintaining, coupled to the means for regular expression matching, the means for maintaining storing parse states for a plurality of packet flows.
Claim 24
Independent Claim
72 words
A method of parsing packets in a processor, comprising: receiving a network packet, performing instruction-driven packet parsing on the network packet responsive to parsing instructions that traverse nodes of a state machine; and storing parsing instructions in memory addresses corresponding to the nodes, wherein performing instruction-driven packet parsing comprises storing a portion of a parsing state in a hash unit, and generating a key to look-up the portion of the parsing state.
Claim 25
Independent Claim
72 words
A method of parsing packets in a processor, comprising: receiving a network packet, performing instruction-driven packet parsing on the network packet responsive to parsing instructions that traverse nodes of a state machine; and storing parsing instructions in memory addresses corresponding to the nodes, wherein performing instruction-driven packet parsing comprises storing a portion of a parsing state in a hash unit, and generating a key to look-up the portion of the parsing state.
Claim 26
Dependent Claim
32 words
The packet processor of claim 20 , wherein the hash unit comprises a TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) hash table and the key comprises a destination IP (Internet Protocol) address and destination port.
Claim 27
Dependent Claim
19 words
The method of claim 20 , wherein the performing instruction-driven packet parsing further comprises executing parsing instructions in scratchpads.
Claim 28
Dependent Claim
45 words
The method of claim 20 , wherein a parsing instruction is associated with a node in the state-graph, and identifying keyword matches further comprises identifying a parsing instruction at a node of the state graph, and executing the parsing instruction responsive to a node match.
Claim 29
Dependent Claim
22 words
The method of claim 20 , wherein a portion of the parsing instructions emulate nodes from a software application for application recognition.
Claim 30
Dependent Claim
21 words
The method of claim 20 , wherein a parsing instruction comprises an encoded bitmap that represents whether characters have a transition.
Claim 31
Dependent Claim
27 words
The method of claim 20 , wherein the identifying keyword matches comprises identifying keyword matches on a state-graph stored in an FCRAM (Fast Cycle Random Access Memory).
Claim 32
Dependent Claim
12 words
The method of claim 20 , further comprising executing a parsing instruction.
Claim 33
Independent Claim
54 words
A method of parsing packets in a processor, comprising: receiving a network packet, performing instruction-driven packet parsing on the network packet responsive to parsing instructions that traverse nodes of a state machine; and storing parsing instructions in memory addresses corresponding to the nodes, further comprising: maintaining parse states for a plurality of packet flows.
Claim 34
Independent Claim
54 words
A method of parsing packets in a processor, comprising: receiving a network packet, performing instruction-driven packet parsing on the network packet responsive to parsing instructions that traverse nodes of a state machine; and storing parsing instructions in memory addresses corresponding to the nodes, further comprising: maintaining parse states for a plurality of packet flows.
Claim 35
Independent Claim
58 words
A method of parsing packets in a processor, comprising: receiving a network packet, performing instruction-driven packet parsing on the network packet responsive to parsing instructions that traverse nodes of a state machine; storing parsing instructions in memory addresses corresponding to the nodes; and maintaining the flow states further comprises storing the parser state after parsing the network packet.
Claim 36
Independent Claim
58 words
A method of parsing packets in a processor, comprising: receiving a network packet, performing instruction-driven packet parsing on the network packet responsive to parsing instructions that traverse nodes of a state machine; storing parsing instructions in memory addresses corresponding to the nodes; and maintaining the flow states further comprises storing the parser state after parsing the network packet.
Claim 37
Dependent Claim
92 words
A computer program product, comprising a computer-readable medium having computer program instructions and data embodied thereon for a method for parsing packets in a processor, the method comprising: receiving a network packet, performing instruction-driven packet parsing on the network packet responsive to parsing instructions that traverse nodes of a state machine; and storing parsing instructions in memory addresses corresponding to the nodes, wherein the performing instruction-driven packet parsing further storing a portion of a parsing state in a hash unit, and generating a key to look-up the portion of the parsing state.
Claim 38
Dependent Claim
92 words
A computer program product, comprising a computer-readable medium having computer program instructions and data embodied thereon for a method for parsing packets in a processor, the method comprising: receiving a network packet, performing instruction-driven packet parsing on the network packet responsive to parsing instructions that traverse nodes of a state machine; and storing parsing instructions in memory addresses corresponding to the nodes, wherein the performing instruction-driven packet parsing further storing a portion of a parsing state in a hash unit, and generating a key to look-up the portion of the parsing state.
Claim 39
Dependent Claim
33 words
The computer program product of claim 30 , wherein the hash unit comprises a TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) hash table and the key comprises a destination IP (Internet Protocol) address and destination port.
Claim 40
Dependent Claim
21 words
The computer program product of claim 30 , wherein the performing instruction-driven packet parsing further comprises executing parsing instructions in scratchpads.
Claim 41
Dependent Claim
47 words
The computer program product of claim 30 , wherein a parsing instruction is associated with a node in the state-graph, and identifying keyword matches further comprises identifying a parsing instruction at a node of the state graph, and executing the parsing instruction responsive to a node match.
Claim 42
Dependent Claim
24 words
The computer program product of claim 30 , wherein a portion of the parsing instructions emulate nodes from a software application for application recognition.
Claim 43
Dependent Claim
23 words
The computer program product of claim 30 , wherein a parsing instruction comprises an encoded bitmap that represents whether characters have a transition.
Claim 44
Dependent Claim
29 words
The computer program product of claim 30 , wherein the identifying keyword matches comprises identifying keyword matches on a state-graph stored in an FCRAM (Fast Cycle Random Access Memory).
Claim 45
Dependent Claim
14 words
The computer program product of claim 30 , further comprising executing a parsing instruction.
Claim 46
Dependent Claim
73 words
A computer program product, comprising a computer-readable medium having computer program instructions and data embodied thereon for a method for parsing packets in a processor, the method comprising: receiving a network packet, performing instruction-driven packet parsing on the network packet responsive to parsing instructions that traverse nodes of a state machine; and storing parsing instructions in memory addresses corresponding to the nodes, further comprising: maintaining parse states for a plurality of packet flows.
Claim 47
Dependent Claim
73 words
A computer program product, comprising a computer-readable medium having computer program instructions and data embodied thereon for a method for parsing packets in a processor, the method comprising: receiving a network packet, performing instruction-driven packet parsing on the network packet responsive to parsing instructions that traverse nodes of a state machine; and storing parsing instructions in memory addresses corresponding to the nodes, further comprising: maintaining parse states for a plurality of packet flows.
Claim 48
Dependent Claim
23 words
The computer program product of claim 38 , wherein maintaining the flow states comprises storing the parser state after parsing the network packet.
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USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows
| Annuity Stage | Window Opens | Payment Deadline | Surcharge Period Until | Estimated Fee | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5 Years (Year 4) | 2012-09-07 | 2013-03-09 | 2013-09-08 | $2000.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 7.5 Years (Year 8) | 2016-09-07 | 2017-03-09 | 2017-09-08 | $3760.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 11.5 Years (Year 12) | 2020-09-07 | 2021-03-09 | 2021-09-08 | $7700.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |