Patent ID: 8201235

Claim:
A system comprising: a first firewall device configured to perform a firewall function of a plurality of different firewall functions on a first redundant input data packet and output the first redundant input data packet as a first redundant output data packet according to the firewall function; a second firewall device configured to perform only the same firewall function on a second redundant input data packet and output the second redundant input data packet as a second redundant output data packet according to the firewall function; wherein the redundant input data packets are at least substantially similar; wherein the redundant output data packets are at least substantially similar when the firewall devices are functioning properly; and a controller configured to receive the redundant output data packets from the firewall devices, transmit at a given time one of the redundant output data packets to a target device, transmit the first redundant output data packet to the target device while the second firewall device is failed, and transmit the second redundant output data packet to the target device while the first firewall device is failed.