Patent ID: 11929987
Assignee: JUNIPER NETWORKS, INC.
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  G | IPC G  H

Claim 0:
1. A method comprising:
receiving, by a network device, a packet including a layer 2 (L2) packet header;
determining, by the network device, that the packet matches a packet flow that is associated with an action to redirect the packet to a firewall configured as a bump-in-the-wire;
prior to redirecting the packet to the firewall, modifying, by the network device, a Media Access Control (MAC) address field of the L2 packet header of the packet with a flow identifier of the packet flow;
sending, by the network device, the packet including the flow identifier to the firewall;
receiving, by the network device, the packet including the flow identifier returned from the firewall; and
in response to receiving the packet including the flow identifier returned from the firewall, performing, by the network device, at least one of:
determining, when the flow identifier is included in a source MAC address field of the L2 packet header, a first virtual machine interface (VMI) from which the network device received the packet from before the packet was sent to the firewall; or
determining, when the flow identifier is included in a destination MAC address field of the L2 packet header, a second VMI by which the network device sends the packet to a destination of the packet;

determining, by the network device and based on determining the first VMI or the second VMI, the L2 packet header of the packet from before the packet was sent to the firewall; and
in response to determining the L2 packet header of the packet from before the packet was sent to the firewall, modifying, by the network device, the packet including the flow identifier to restore the L2 packet header of the packet from before the packet was sent to the firewall.