Build shape-shifting tries for fast IP lookup in O(n) time

Most data structures for packet forwarding are optimized for IPv4, and less capable of handling IPv6 routing tables. Shape-Shifting Trie (SST) is specifically designed to be scalable to IPv6. To reduce the worst-case lookup time that is proportional to the height of SST, it is desirable to construct a minimum-height SST. Breadth-First Pruning (BFP) algorithm takes O(n2) time to construct a minimum-height SST, where n is the number of nodes in the binary trie corresponding to the routing table. In this paper, we propose a Post-Order Minimum-Height Pruning (POMHP) algorithm that takes only O(n) time to construct a minimum-height SST. We further propose nodes merging algorithm to cut down SST size without affecting SST height.