An apparatus for and a method of compressing the forwarding decision for a frame within a network device. A forwarding decision is compressed yielding a forwarding pointer that occupies far less memory space than the corresponding output port vector. The compressed forwarding pointers are stored in a...http://www.google.com/patents/US6343078?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US6343078 - Compression of forwarding decisions in a network device
