Patent ID: 8054833
Filing Date: 2011-11-08
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A network device, comprising: a network chip including logic and a number of network ports for the device for receiving and transmitting packets therefrom; and wherein the logic is operable to mirror a packet on a per port per virtual local area network (VLAN) membership basis by selecting ports for a mirror action according to a network port of the network device receiving the packet and a VLAN for the port, and the logic is operable to identify a mirror index according to the VLAN for the port and use the mirror index to determine whether the mirror action is a mirror-only action or a mirror-steal action and to identify a filter according to the mirror index to apply to the selected ports for the mirror action, if the mirror action is determined to be a mirror-only action, the logic is operable to apply the filter to the selected ports to select ports for the mirror-only action, and if the mirror action is determined to be a mirror-steal action, the logic is operable to apply the filter to the selected ports to identify masked ports, wherein the packet is prevented from being sent to the masked ports.