Patent ID: 8583832

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving, at a master network interface device (M-NID) and from at least one of a first client network interface device (C-NID) or a second C-NID, first data; forwarding, by the M-NID, the first data to one or more destinations; receiving, at the M-NID and from at least one of the first C-NID or the second C-NID, second data; forwarding, by the M-NID, the second data to a network management system (NMS), where the NMS is different than the one or more destinations; receiving, at the M-NID and from the NMS, via a first peer-to-peer (P2P) transport channel, third data destined for the first C-NID, where the third data is associated with network management functions and is received in response to the forwarded second data; receiving, at the M-NID and from the NMS, via the first P2P transport channel, fourth data destined for the second C-NID, where the fourth data is associated with network management functions and is received in response to the forwarded second data; forwarding the third data from the M-NID to the first C-NID via a second P2P transport channel that is different than the first P2P transport channel; and forwarding the fourth data from the M-NID to the second C-NID via a third P2P transport channel that is different than the first P2P transport channel.