Patent ID: 7359984

Claim:
In a network environment comprising a first host, a second host, a first network device, a second network device, and a QoS device, a method allowing the QoS device to operate on packet flows transmitted between hosts, the method comprising: receiving, at the first network device, a packet transmitted from the first host and addressed to the second host, wherein the packet comprises a header including a plurality of header fields; modifying, at the first network device, a header field of the message to include an identifier of the first host; transmitting the packet from the first network device to the second network device; receiving the packet at the second network device; modifying, at the second network device, the identifier in the header field of the packet to identify the second host; and transmitting the packet from the second network device to the first network device; wherein during at least one of the transmitting steps the packet traverses the QoS device thereby enabling the QoS device to provide quality of service processing for the packet based on the identifier, wherein the QoS device is disposed between the first and second network devices, and wherein the QoS device and the second network device are located outside of the routed communication path between the first and second hosts.