Patent ID: 7881324
Filing Date: 2011-02-01
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method of steering data communications packets for transparent, bump-in-the-wire processing among multiple data processing applications, the method comprising: carrying out bump-in-the-wire processing among the multiple data processing applications in a link-level data communications switch, the switch comprising a data communications processor operatively coupled to a plurality of data communications ports, a first one of the ports connected to a first data communications network and a second one of the ports connected to a second data communications network, two or more additional ports connected to the data processing applications, each port capable of functioning as an ingress port or an egress port for data communications among the networks and the applications, each application associated with a unique, link-level identifier; the switch further comprising data storage operatively coupled to the processor, the data storage having stored within it rules governing the steering of data communications among the ports of the switch, each rule comprising an association of an ingress port and an egress port, including: receiving in the switch through an ingress port from the first network data communications packets directed to the second network, each packet containing a source network address that identifies the source of the packet in the first network and a destination network address that identifies the destination of the packet in the second network; and steering by the switch each packet among the applications and through an egress port to the second network, such steering carried out only in accordance with the rules, using neither the source network address of the packet, the destination network address of the packet, nor the link-level identifier of any application.