Patent ID: 8018856

Claim:
A director device arrangement for performing a plurality of monitoring functions on data traffic traversing through a network, the director device arrangement comprising: circuitry; a power module for providing power to at least said circuitry; a processor module for providing processing capability to said director device arrangement; a set of network ports, said set of network ports including a set of input network ports for receiving said data traffic and a set of output network ports for outputting said data traffic from said director device arrangement; a set of switch modules, said set of switch modules being configured to include at least a first switch module and a second switch module, said first switch module and said second switch module interacting with one another to perform said plurality of monitoring functions on said data traffic received by said set of switch modules; and at least one monitoring port, said at least one monitoring port being configured to receive at least one of said data traffic traversing through said network, whereas said data traffic is configured to traverse said director device arrangement between said set of input network ports and said set of output network ports irrespective of whether said power is provided to said circuitry, said processor module, and said set of switch modules.