Patent ID: 8605720

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a first communication port, wherein the first communication port is coupled with an exit of an associated stream control transport protocol (SCTP) pipe; a second communication port, wherein the second communication port is coupled with an associated local area network employing transmission control protocol (TCP) packets for communications; and router control logic coupled with the first and second communication ports and operable to route packets between the first and second communication ports; wherein the router control logic intercepts a first SCTP control packet requesting router information sent by an entry node of the associated SCTP pipe, the first SCTP control packet comprising a source address for responding on the first communication port and a destination address corresponding to an endpoint; wherein the router control logic converts, in response to receiving the first SCTP control packet, the first SCTP control packet to a predefined packet and sends the predefined packet for requesting router information on the second communication port, the requested router information comprising transmission control protocol (TCP) information and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) session information; wherein the router control logic receives responses to the predefined packet on the second communication port, wherein the responses to the predefined packet comprise routing data; wherein the routing data comprises data representative of routers discovered between the second communication port and the endpoint; wherein the router control logic collates the responses to the predefined packet received on the second communication port; wherein the router control logic sends a second SCTP control packet to the entry node of the associated SCTP pipe in response to receiving the first SCTP control packet via the first communication port, the second SCTP control packet comprising the collated responses to the predefined packet received via the second communication port; and wherein the second SCTP control packet further comprises data representative of routers discovered between the second communication port and the endpoint, and a list of TCP and UDP sessions in the associated SCTP pipe.