Patent ID: 6854063

Claim:
In a firewall device having a plurality of communication interfaces, a packet filtering component coupled to each of the interfaces, a switching process component coupled to each of the interfaces, and a firewall services component coupled to the switching process component, a firewall system comprising: a) a session manager operating in said firewall services component, said session manager structured and configured to instantiate a plurality of sessions in said firewall services component and a plurality of mini-sessions in said switching process component, each of said plurality of sessions having header and payload information related to a corresponding data transfer within the firewall device, each of said plurality of mini-sessions corresponding to a session and including header information related the corresponding data transfer within the firewall device, wherein said plurality of mini-sessions comprises instantiated software modules residing in the same address space as said switching process component; and b) a firewall module operating in said switching process coupled to said plurality of mini-sessions, said firewall module configured to intercept data packets received into the interfaces, said firewall module further configured to track session context of said data packets.