Patent ID: 8615008

Claim:
A method of creating multiple copies of network traffic, the method comprising: receiving network traffic at a first port of a first network device, wherein said first network device comprises a plurality of ports; producing a duplicate copy of said network traffic, wherein said duplicate copy comprises an address to a second network device, wherein said network traffic is intended for delivery to said address; forwarding from said first port said duplicate copy to a second port of said first network device, wherein said second port is not associated with said address; forwarding from said second port said duplicate copy to a monitoring I/O port of said first network device; configuring said monitoring I/O port as input for a monitoring VLAN (virtual local area network); configuring said monitoring I/O port and a grouping of ports into said monitoring VLAN, wherein said grouping of ports is taken from said plurality of ports, and wherein said grouping does not include said second port; disabling media access control (MAC) address learning for said monitoring I/O port for purposes of delivering said duplicate copy of said network traffic to all of said grouping of ports in said monitoring VLAN; and said monitoring I/O port transmitting a plurality of copies of said duplicate copy to said grouping of ports corresponding to at least one network monitoring device, wherein at least one copy of said plurality of copies is created without encapsulation.