Patent ID: 7460484

Claim:
A method of establishing taps within a connection-oriented communication network which carries a main connection originating at a source node, the method comprising the following steps: generating a Surveillance Information Element (SIE) at the source node, the SIE including collection identifier information that specifies the location of a monitoring station; inserting the SIE into a setup request; launching the setup request to begin establishment of the main connection; determining whether the setup request includes the SIE at an interception node; extracting the collection identifier information from the SIE when the SIE is present; launching a first switched tap connection between an interception point, located at an interception node separate from the source node, and the monitoring station; creating a first tap for copying traffic from the main connection onto the first switched tap connection; and continuing to establish the main connection once the first tap is created, using a setup request that does not include collection identifier information.