Patent ID: 7817636

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a plurality of network interfaces that are operable to communicatively connect to one or more packet-switched networks; one or more forwarding logic components coupled to the plurality of network interfaces and operable to receive packet flows and to forward the packet flows; logic stored in one or more storage media for execution and when executed operable to: receive address information that identifies a packet flow; generate a synthetic packet based on the address information and comprising header data indicating that the synthetic packet is not to be forwarded to any next-hop network element; provide the synthetic packet to at least one forwarding logic component of the one or more forwarding logic components; retrieve forwarding information that indicates one or more forwarding decisions for the synthetic packet made by said at least one forwarding logic component; and report the forwarding information; wherein said at least one forwarding logic component is operable to: make a forwarding decision for the synthetic packet as part of processing packets in the packet flow; and store, as part of the forwarding information, data indicating the forwarding decision.