Patent ID: 8320242

Claim:
An active response network tap for use in monitoring a network, the active response network tap comprising: a first device interface terminal; a second device interface terminal; a first monitor interface terminal; a second monitor interface terminal; a tap structure coupled to the first device interface terminal, the second device interface terminal, the first monitor interface terminal, and second monitor interface terminal; and a memory coupled to the tap structure and configured to store data, wherein the tap structure is configured to communicate first full-duplex traffic between the tap structure and a first monitor, the first monitor coupled to the first monitor interface terminal, the tap structure is further configured to communicate second full-duplex traffic between the tap structure and a second monitor, the second monitor coupled to the second monitor interface terminal, the tap structure is further configured to provide bandwidth priority to a network packet over a response packet if the network packet and the response packet arrive at the active response network tap at the same time, wherein the response packet is buffered and transmitted in a manner that yields the bandwidth priority to the network packet, the network packet originating from the network, the response packet originating from at least one of the first monitor and the second monitor; wherein the tap structure is further configured to aggregate a first data stream received from the first device interface terminal and a second data stream received from the second device interface terminal to generate a combined data stream, and the tap structure is further configured to simultaneously send a first copy of the combined data stream to the first monitor through the first monitor interface terminal and a second copy of the combined data stream to the second monitor through the second monitor interface terminal.