1. A method of routing network-based data arranged in frames comprising the steps of: receiving a first portion of a frame within a memory of a network device, wherein the first portion of the received frame includes data having preselected address fields; transferring a burst of data after receiving a start-of-packet interrupt, including preselected address fields, from the memory to an external shared system memory that exists between the network device and a host processor; generating an interrupt signal to the host processor indicative that the preselected address fields of the frame are present in the shared system memory; and initiating within the host processor an address and look-up algorithm in address tables to determine frame routing based on the preselected address fields.