The point of the data structure in this case was not the radix trie alone but rather the combination of the use of tries in concert with the aggregation charact

The point of the data structure in this case was not the radix trie alone but rather the combination of the use of tries in concert with the aggregation characteristics of IP traffic. This type of innovative combination is common in the network world due to the necessity of providing ever more introspection and functionality over ever higher throughputs and ever lower latencies. For some serious treatment of the subject, check out the book "Network Algorithmics" by George Varghese.