NETWORK DEVICE AND METHOD FOR SWITCHING, ROUTING AND/OR GATEWAYING DATA

A communication network comprises a central processing unit, data ingress ports and data egress ports configured to exchange data with a further network device of the communication network, and a plurality of co-processors that comprises frame normalization co-processors, ingress queuing co-processors, filtering and policing co-processors, intermediate queuing co-processors, a gatewaying co-processor, egress queuing co-processors, and a traffic shaping co-processor. The central processing unit configures and controls the data ingress ports, the data egress ports, and the plurality of co-processors to implement data processing paths in parallel or in a pipeline between the ingress ports and the egress ports.