US Patent 7096277 Distributed lookup based on packet contents

The disclosure includes description of a technique for use in looking-up data based on content of a packet received over a network. The technique includes receiving a lookup value based on the received packet, searching a first memory using at least a portion of the lookup value, and if the searching the first memory fails, searching a second memory, having a lower latency than the first memory, using at least a portion of the lookup value.