Overview

Fast forwarding reduces route lookup time and improves packet forwarding efficiency by using a high-speed cache and data-flow-based technology. It identifies a data flow by using the following fields:

• Source IPv6 address.

• Destination IPv6 address.

• Source port number.

• Destination port number.

• Protocol number.

After a flow's first packet is forwarded through the routing table, fast forwarding creates an entry and uses the entry to forward subsequent packets of the flow.