Patent ID: 8045550

Claim:
A network device, comprising: a network chip including logic and a number of network ports for the device for receiving and transmitting packets therefrom, at least one of the network ports directly connected to a network client; and wherein the logic is to: select original data packets, based on a set of criteria, tunnel encapsulate the selected original data packets to tunnel the encapsulated data packets to a second network device having a different destination address than an original destination address of the selected original data packets, wherein the second network device is connected to a network appliance, and receive the selected original data packets back from the second network device following processing on the selected original data packets by the network appliance, wherein the selected original data packet is tunnel encapsulated, decapsulate the tunnel encapsulated data packets received from the second network device, and send the selected original data packets to the original destination address of the selected original data packets.