Method and apparatus for processing packet in high speed router

An apparatus and a method for processing packets in a fast router are provided to increase system efficiency by reducing the memory of a forwarding information table, which a forwarding processor occupies, and decreasing IPC(Inter Processor Communication) messages between a control processor and the forwarding processor. A fast router comprises a control processor(100), an Ethernet switch(200), and a forwarding processor(300). The control processor(100) comprises a prefix table(110), a next hop table(120), and an L2(Layer 2) address table(130). The forwarding processor(300) comprises input/output processors(310,340), input/output network processors(320,350), and a switch fabric(330). The input processor(310) is comprised of a prefix table(311) and a next hop table(312). The output processor(340) comprises an L2 indirect address table(341), which is directly indexed from the next hop table(312) of the input processor(310), and an L2 direct table, which is composed of a hashing table for destination IP addresses. Also the output processor(340) comprises an IPv4 packet queue(343) and an IPv6 packet queue(344) to store packets according to their respective types until L2 addresses are learned.