US Patent 10949199 Copying packet data to mirror buffer

Some embodiments provide a method for a network forwarding integrated circuit (IC). The method receives packet data with an instruction to copy a portion of the packet data to a temporary storage of the network forwarding IC. The portion is larger than a maximum entry size of the temporary storage. The method generates a header for each of multiple packet data sections for storage in entries of the temporary storage, with each packet data section including a sub-portion of the packet data portion. The method sends the packet data sections with the generated headers to the temporary storage for storage in multiple separate temporary storage entries.