Patent ID: 8050273

Claim:
A method to provide lawful interception of traffic associated with a network device in an internet protocol (IP) network, comprising providing a lawful interception device in a physical IP network infrastructure that also includes at least a first switch, a monitored network device associated with a party of interest, and at least one other network device; configuring a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) comprising the lawful interception device and the monitored network device in a logical network infrastructure; and monitoring traffic on the VLAN using the lawful interception device, including monitoring packets between the monitored network device and one or more other network devices without the party of interest being aware of the monitoring; wherein the lawful interception device configures the VLAN by sending a request to the first switch with VLAN configuration information comprising at least one of port grouping information, MAC-layer address information, IP multicast group information, IEEE 801.1Q frame tag information, Generic Attribute Registration Protocol (GARP) tag information, and GARP VLAN Registration Protocol (GVRP) drop/add information in the same manner that switches would configure VLANs; wherein the lawful interception device and the monitored network device are end-nodes in relation to the first switch.