Patent ID: 7822026

Claim:
A transit device, comprising: a first link configured to receive a plurality of packets, wherein the plurality of packets include a first type of packet and a second type of packet; a second link communicatively coupled to the first link; and a slow protocol filter communicatively coupled to the first link and the second link; wherein the slow protocol filter is communicatively coupled to a local slow protocol client, wherein the slow protocol filter is configured to receive the plurality of packets from the first link, to determine whether each of the plurality of packets is the first type of packet or the second type of packet, to transmit each of the plurality of packets that are the first type of packet to the second link, and to transmit each of the plurality of packets that are the second type of packet to the local slow protocol client; wherein the slow protocol filter is configured to establish a loop back to the at least a first one of the first link and the second link upon request from a remote link partner and wherein the loop back comprises the at least a first one of the first link and the second link being configured to return data packets of a particular type which are sent from the remote partner on that link; and wherein the slow protocol filter is configured to send a PAUSE frame to a second one of the first link and the second link to temporarily stop normal through traffic between first and second link during the loop back.