Processing Packets by an Offload Platform Adjunct to a Packet Switching Device

Abstract

In one embodiment, an offload platform is an compute platform, adjunct to a router or other packet switching device, that performs packet processing operations including determining an egress forwarding value corresponding to the next-hop node of the packet switching device to which to send an offload-platform processed packet. The offload platform downloads forwarding information from the router, and augments it, such as, but not limited to, representing interfaces of the router as identifiable virtual interface(s) on the offload platform, and including each of one or more next-hop nodes of the router represented as an identifiable virtual adjacency and identifiable tunnel (e.g., identified by the egress forwarding value). In one embodiment, the egress forwarding value is an Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) label or Segment Routing Identifier. The router identifies packets of certain packet flows to send to the adjunct offload platform, rather than processing per its routing information base.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 establishing, by an offload platform, a tunnel to a router in a network;   receiving, on the tunnel by the offload platform, a packet received by the router from a node in the network;   offload-packet processing the packet by the offload platform resulting in an offload-processed packet including an egress forwarding value; and   sending the offload-processed packet by the offload platform on the tunnel to the router,   wherein the offload platform is a computing platform adjunct to the router, and   wherein the offload-packet processing comprises performing a forwarding lookup operation resulting in an identification of the egress forwarding value that effectively identifies a next-hop node of the router or corresponding egress interface of the router for reaching the next-hop node.