Next hop storage and retrieval for coded and scalar IP prefix trees

Currently, the large size of IP routing tables, the increasing rate of communication links and the unavoidable need for moving from IPv4 to IPv6, have caused researchers to introduce fast and memory efficient route lookup methods which are less dependent on IP address length. In this paper, we will review our two novel data structures called “Coded Prefix Trees” and “Scalar Prefix Trees” with lookup and update node access complexities of O(log n) where n is the number of prefixes. After reviewing these structures, the focus of the paper will be on the schemes required for storing and retrieving the “next hop” related to the Longest Matching Prefix (LMP) of an input query address.