Abstract: A routing device including an operating system kernel, a virtual router residing external to the kernel, a router manager configured to manage the virtual router, an application residing external to the virtual router, and a number of physical interfaces is disclosed. The application selectively interacts with the virtual router and the kernel on a dynamic basis, which perform a number of tasks for the application. The virtual router includes a routing protocol stack configured to handle a number of routing protocols, a number of interface drivers configured to communicate with corresponding physical interfaces, an IP stack configured to interact with the routing protocol stack and perform a forwarding function via the interface drivers, the IP stack having a forwarding information table used to perform the forwarding function; and a socket layer having a corresponding socket API configured to facilitate interactions between the IP stack and one or more socket applications.

Abstract: A method for optimizing routing functions in a router is provided. The router has a split plane architecture including a control plane and a data plane. The control plane includes an Address Resolution Protocol cache and the data plane includes a programmable forwarding information base. According to one aspect, when the control plane obtains information about a route, it evaluates the obtained information about the route to determine if address resolution is needed. If it is determined that address resolution is needed for the route, the control plane performs the needed address resolution to derive additional information about the route. The control plane programs the forwarding information base to incorporate the obtained and additional information. The determination as to whether address resolution is needed for the route is performed regardless of whether packets are to be delivered on the route.

Abstract: An optimized interface for handling routed and non-routed point-to-point sessions is provided. According to one exemplary aspect, when a PPP session is established for a client, an interface data structure or module is dynamically created for the client corresponding to the PPP session. The interface data structure includes, for example, Layer-2 and Layer-3 information relating to the PPP session. Upon its creation, the interface data structure is linked to the optimized interface. The created interface data structure is then used by the optimized interface to facilitate communications with the client for the duration of the PPP session.