Patent ID: 8352590

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving data to initialize a virtual point-to-point tunnel interface between a network device within a network and a wire-tapping device connected to the network through a network edge device, wherein the wire-tapping device is external to the network, wherein the virtual point-to-point tunnel interface is paired with at least one physical interface on the network device, and the physical interface is configured to participate in a routing protocol; authenticating the virtual point-to-point tunnel interface to receive routing protocol traffic; initializing the virtual point-to-point tunnel interface to receive information, wherein the received information is the routing protocol traffic; receiving the information through the virtual point-to-point tunnel interface, wherein the information is received at the wire-tapping device from the network device through the at least one physical interface; collating the received information at the wire-tapping device; determining a network topology at the wire-tapping device, the determination being enabled by the collated received information; and based on the network topology, determining, at the wire-tapping device, a shortest path for forwarding data.