A method and system for storing and accessing associations between network
addresses and ports within a network multiplexer. The method and system
implement an address table containing indexed address/port pairs. Multiple
hash functions are applied to an input address in order to identify
indexes of address table entries in which the input address may be stored.
If the entries indexed by application of the multiple hash functions to an
input source address are neither empty nor contain the input source
address, then contents of one of the entries is discarded, and the input
source address is placed into the now empty entry. Over time, discarded
addresses are re-entered into the address table in a fashion equivalent to
hash table reshuffling, but the computational inefficiencies inherent in
hash table reshuffling are deferred and largely avoided.
