Patent ID: 7827402

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving a packet at a network node of a network, after said packet has been received by an ingress node of said network, wherein said packet comprises access control information, said network comprises a plurality of nodes, said ingress node is the first node of said plurality of nodes to receive said packet, and said network node is a network node of said plurality of nodes other than said ingress node; performing access control processing on said packet at said network node, after said packet has been received at said network node, wherein said access control processing identifies said access control information of said packet, said access control information comprises security group information, and an address of a destination node, said security group information identifies a security group, said destination node is a member of said security group, and said destination node is a destination of said packet; and sending another packet from said network node to said ingress node, in response to said access control processing, wherein said another packet comprises said access control information.