Patent ID: 9674074
Date: 2017-06-06
CPC Classifications: H04L

Claim:
1. A method comprising: receiving a plurality of packets at an ingress port of a network switch appliance from a plurality of nodes on a computer network, wherein the plurality of packets include duplicate packets; repeatedly determining, by the network switch appliance, a workload of the network switch appliance; if the workload is below a first prescribed threshold: if the workload is above the first prescribed threshold: wherein the user-configurable forwarding scheme is not part of the packet de-duplication processing task and is independent of an outcome of said determining the workload; and wherein the user-configurable forwarding scheme defines transmission within the network switch appliance of at least some of the received packets from the ingress port to the egress port of the network switch appliance, the egress port communicatively coupled to the external network monitoring instrument.