Patent ID: 7649883

Claim:
A telecommunications system comprising: a packet mode switch fabric; a source device and a destination device, said source device being connected to said destination device by a channel through the switch fabric and traffic data from said source device to said destination device being carried as a stream of packets on said through channel; and a switch means for replicating said stream of packets and communicating said replicated packet stream to a network service provider device located within said packet mode switch fabric over a channel connecting the through channel to the network service provider device, said network service provider device being arranged to process said replicated packet stream and to generate, in response to processing said replicated packet stream, service data relating to said traffic data and to provide said service data in a packet stream to said switch means for switching into said stream of packets being carried on said through channel, wherein the network service provider device is arranged to generate the service data in accordance with a pre-determined set of service provision rules stored internally in the network service provider device.