Patent ID: 7945721

Claim:
An apparatus separate from a physical device, comprising: an interface configured to intercept traffic for the physical device; and a hardware mechanism configured to: extract from the traffic a packet that includes a register access request for control and/or status configuration operations for the physical device; send other traffic to a physical output port which is coupled to the physical device; and for the packet that is extracted: use the packet and policy information for the hardware mechanism to determine whether the packet is to be processed by the hardware mechanism; if the packet is to be processed by the hardware mechanism, forward the register access request to a software-controlled entity for access to a virtual configuration space register; otherwise, if the packet is not to be processed by the hardware mechanism: use the packet and the policy information to determine a destination identifier for the packet; and send a forwarding packet that includes the packet and the destination identifier to a physical output port for the hardware mechanism.