Patent ID: 8576840

Claim:
A method comprising: a packet switch receiving a plurality of packets on a port of the packet switch; the packet switch determining that a first one of the packets is a control packet comprising a request that a device receiving the control packet effect a network behavior change or network configuration change; an assignment application of the packet switch determining if the first one of the packets is tagged; if the first one of the packets is not tagged, the assignment application of the packet switch performs one of adding a first tag having a first value to the control packet effective to assign the control packet to a first network service or peering the control packet to a control plane of the packet switch; if the first one of the packets is tagged, the assignment application of the packet switch performs one of adding the first tag having the first value to the control packet effective to assign the control packet to the first network service, assigning the control packet to a default network service associated with the port of the packet switch, or dropping the control packet; if the first tag having the first value is added to the control packet effective to assign the control packet to the first network service, the packet switch declining to effect the network behavior change or network configuration change requested by the request and forwarding the control packet to a network node connected to the packet switch and physically distinct from the packet switch; the packet switch determining that a second one of the packets is a non-control packet; the packet switch adding a second tag having a second value to the non-control packet effective to assign the non-control packet to a second network service, the second value being different from the first value; and the packet switch forwarding the non-control packet comprising the second tag to the network node.