Patent ID: 11900024
Assignee: AMAZON TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G  H | IPC G  H

Claim 13:
14. A system, comprising:
a device configured to perform packet processing, the device comprising:
a plurality of network interfaces configured to transmit and receive packets via a physical network connection to the device; and
a packet processing pipeline that processes different network packets received from different sources via the plurality of network interfaces and forwards the different network packets according to forwarding decisions determined for the different network packets by the packet processing pipeline, wherein the packet processing pipeline is configured to:
identify metadata received for processing at the packet processing pipeline as the metadata to simulate a network packet to be processed on behalf of a controller for the device, wherein the metadata is received at the packet processing pipeline without a payload via one or more other interfaces instead of the device receiving the network packet with the metadata and the payload via the plurality of network interfaces, wherein a storage component implemented within the packet processing pipeline receives the metadata via a writing operation that bypasses a packet parser that extracts respective metadata from the different network packets to separate the respective metadata from respective payloads of the different network packets such that the metadata is written to the storage component without being extracted by the packet parser, and wherein the packet parser is upstream of the storage component;

include in the metadata an indication that the metadata is for the simulated network packet;
process the metadata through a processing stage of the packet processing pipeline to determine a forwarding decision for the simulated network packet, wherein the forwarding decision is included in processed metadata output that is a processed version of the metadata;
evaluate the processed metadata output from the processing stage to identify the processed metadata output as for the simulated network packet;
override the forwarding decision for the simulated network packet; and
provide, via the one or more other interfaces, the processed metadata output for the simulated network packet to the controller for the device.