Patent ID: 8706893

Claim:
An apparatus for communicating multimedia data streams between a first endpoint communicatively coupled to a secured network, wherein the secured network is secured by a firewall, and a second endpoint external to the secured network, the apparatus comprising: a first logical port monitoring traffic flow through the apparatus; a second logical port monitoring traffic flow through the apparatus; and a common interface communicatively coupling the first logical port to the second logical port; the first logical port being communicatively coupled to the first endpoint, the first endpoint within the secured network; the first logical port operative to select, from the common interface, a selected multimedia data stream, the selection based on conformance with a first communication protocol from a plurality of data streams received by the first logical port and initiate a transfer of the selected multimedia data streams to the first endpoint, the selected multimedia data streams bypassing the firewall; the first logical port further operative to receive multimedia data streams conforming to the first communication protocol from the first endpoint and inject them into the common interface; the second logical port communicatively coupled to the second endpoint and configured to receive input data streams from the second endpoint; and the second logical port operative to select a portion of the input data streams, the selection based on conformance to the first communication protocol and allow only multimedia data streams conforming to the first communication protocol to be injected into the common interface, and, to select multimedia data streams conforming to the first communication protocol from the common interface and initiate transfer of the selected multimedia data streams to the second endpoint, the selected multimedia data streams bypassing the firewall.