System and process for GHIH-speed pattern matching for application-level switching of data packets

The field of the invention is that of the networking of data processing systems or computers and, more particularly, that of the switchable connection of Local Area Networks ("LANs") such as those supported by the Ethernet protocol and Wide Area Networks ("WANs") such as those supported by the Asynchronous Transfer Mode ("ATM") protocol. A process and system for switching connections of data packet flows between nodes of data processing system networks operating on diverse protocols according to the application layer information on the data packets. The process retrieves and hashes the header information to from an index into memory where a flow tag pointer is stored. The flow tag points to flow switching information that directs the forwarding of the packet. The switching information is sent along with the packet data to direct the forwarding state information about the flow is updated in the flow switching information. The hash function includes a multiplication and division by polynomials forming a hash result and a signature result. Both hash and signature are used to ensure that the information retrieved is valid. If invalid, The pre hashed header information is parsed to determine the forwarding information. This forwarding information is stored for later use and the appropriate flow tag pointer is stored in the hash result index.