Abstract: An apparatus for generating route information for asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) cell processing includes a route agent (64) that transmits a route request cell in response to a determination that route information for a particular ATM cell is not found within a route cache (62). A route processor (34) receives the route request cell from the route agent (64) and performs a route lookup operation within a set of routing tables (32). A master processor (30) builds and maintains the routing tables (32) in response to network and switch topologies received from and generated by an administration module (14). The route processor (34) obtains route information, such as destination card and port number, from the routing tables (32) and generates a route response cell containing the appropriate route information. The route agent (64) receives the route response cell from the route process (34) and updates the route cache (62) as determined by a least recently used manager (65).