Patent ID: 7055174

Claim:
A method of wiretapping a communication represented by a number of packets being communicated in a packet-switched network between a source address and a destination address, via at least one node, the method comprising, in combination: during initiation of the communication, an entity involved with the initiation making a determination to place a participant in the communication under surveillance; in response to the determination, the entity sending a wiretap-message to a controller, the wiretap-message indicating a network access point of the node; in response to the wiretap-message, the controller sending a receive-message to a hub and sending a transmit-message to the node, the receive-message instructing the hub to reserve at least one port at which to receive the packets of the communication, and the transmit-message instructing the node to transmit the packets to the at least one port of the hub, wherein, the node then bi-casts the packets to (i) the at least one port of the hub and (ii) the destination address; the hub receiving the packets and responsively converting the packets into a digital bit stream representative of the communication; the controller sending a call-setup message to a circuit-switch, the call-setup message instructing the circuit-switch to establish a circuit-switched call path between the hub and an observer via the circuit-switch, wherein the circuit-switch responsively establishes the circuit-switched call path; and the hub sending the digital bit stream via the circuit-switched call path to the circuit-switch, and the circuit-switch responsively forwarding the communication via the circuit-switched call path to the observer.