Patexia is looking for descriptions of a switch with multiple interface cards, each with a local memory containing a subset of the overall routing table, but can quickly update by accessing the overall routing table with the correct routing information if needed.

Submitted documents describing this system must be:

• filed or published before 09/29/1995
• not on the known references list

The entire submission must describe a switch with:

1. a master control process (432) that contains the entirety of the routing table
2. a number of interface cards (448 and 402)
3. each interface with a local memory containing a portion of the routing table (410 and 422) and a memory controller (458 and 456)
4. each interface’s routing table being different from each other (e.g. 422 does not have the same entries as 410)
5. and a backplane (428) and a bus (430) to interconnect the master control process (432) and the interface cards (448 and 402)

Using these components:

• when a data packet arrives at an interface with a destination address that is not in the interface’s local memory’s routing table (410 and 422)
• the memory controller (458 and 456) looks up the relevant routing information from the master control process (432) to update its local routing table (422 and 410)

Figure 4 showing the backplane (428), the bus (430), the interfaces (448 and 402), and the master control process (432)

This contest is for a prior art search for US Patent RE40,467, with a focus on claims 1, 19, 48, and 49, in the general context of a network switch. 

Contest icon by Arthur Shlain from the Noun Project.