Strong and searching a hierarchy of items of particular use with IP security policies and security associations

摘要: Mechanisms for storing and searching a hierarchy of items are disclosed which may be particularly useful implementing security policies associations, such as, but not limited to Internet Protocol (IPsec). A is stored in search priority order. Multiple element definitions groups elements identified. Representations the prioritized searchable data structure decreasing that representations each particular definition after set associated with before lower their elements. The include associations. an associative memory or plurality entries.