Patent ID: 7673184

Claim:
A network diagnostic component placed in-line between first and second nodes in a network comprising: a diagnostic module configured to perform one or more diagnostic operations; a first memory; a second memory; a first flow control module; and a second flow control module, wherein the network diagnostic component is configured to perform a flow control operation transparently without the requirement of a separate link layer implementation, wherein the flow control operation comprises: entering into a first pass-through mode, wherein entering the first pass-through mode comprises: receiving one or more first signals for transmission to the second node, wherein the one or more first signals are received from the first node and passed to the second flow control module; transmitting the one or more first signals to the second node, wherein the one or more first signals are substantially unaltered by the network diagnostic component; receiving one or more second signals for transmission to the first node, wherein the one or more second signals are received from the second node and passed to the first flow control module; and transmitting the one or more second signals to the first node, wherein the one or more second signals are substantially unaltered by the network diagnostic component; and entering into a first flow control handshaking mode from the first pass-through mode.