US Patent 7738469 Multi-virtual service module pinhole or connection class offload

In a communications network, a virtual rack having service modules for performing network services is provided. A pinhole that corresponds to a plurality of the service modules is created. Data packets are directed to a service processor in response to matching the data packets to the pinhole. For connection class offload, using the acceleration processor to match the connection class pinhole to the data packets and creating connection class sessions that are used for processing subsequent packets of the connection.