Patent ID: 8072978

Claim:
A method for facilitating application server functionality in an access node; comprising: accessing an Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) request message designating a target Internet Protocol (IP) address in response to the ARP request message being received on a logical access port of the access node wherein the access node is located at the edge of a network and comprises a point of end user access to the network; issuing an ARP reply message associating the target IP address with a Media Access (MAC) address of an application server integrated within the access node in response to successful correlation of the target IP address with an IP address assigned to the application server; and redirecting to the application server a data packet received on the logical access port in response to a destination address of the data packet corresponding to one of an IP address and MAC address of the application server wherein the application server is separately addressable within the access node and there is an internal data path from the logical access port to the application server located within the access node and wherein the IP address and the MAC address of the application server are unique addresses that are only visible on the internal data path; and providing redirection filtering functionality for the access port, wherein said providing redirection filtering functionality includes specifying conditional information for a data redirection filter and specifying conditional information for an ARP redirection filter and when the application server is addressable from the network, the application server is assigned an IP address in a different subnet range than the user facing addresses.