Patent ID: 7835358

Claim:
A method of operating a packet switch connected to a packet-switching network, wherein the packet switch includes a first port and a second port, each of the first and second ports associated with a port number, and wherein the first port is configured as a first network port connected to the packet-switching network to receive an ingress packet, the method comprising: configuring the second port on the packet switch to operate as a first instrument port connected to a network instrument, wherein the network instrument comprises a network monitoring device; establishing a logical connection between the first network port and the first instrument port based on a packet movement configuration before the ingress packet is received at the first network port and before the ingress packet is forwarded to the first instrument port; and for the ingress packet received from the packet-switching network through the first network port, forwarding the received ingress packet from the first network port to the first instrument port based at least on the logical connection established between the first network port and the first instrument port, wherein the ingress packet is received through the first network port by tapping the ingress packet from traffic in the packet-switching network through the first network port.