Patent ID: 7895331

Claim:
A device comprising: a plurality of processors, including at least: a first logical processor comprising one or more of the processors, configured for performing a first network service but not a second network service different from the first network service, and a second logical processor comprising one or more of the processors, configured for performing the second network service but not the first network service; a plurality of network interfaces; a management block, including a traffic classifier that analyzes traffic arriving at the network interfaces and determines a classification for the traffic based on one or more traffic attributes of the traffic, an action module that determines how to handle the traffic in accordance with the classification; and an internal interface that is coupled to the plurality of processors and the management block, wherein the action module causes the traffic to be forwarded to one of the first and second logical processors but not the other of the first and second logical processors via the internal interface based on a first determined classification, and wherein the action module copies the traffic to the first and second logical processors based on a second different determined classification.