Patent ID: 7769023

Claim:
A method of redirecting data that is being transmitted between two or more nodes via a network device of a storage area network, the method comprising: (a) at a first network device, receiving a request to redirect data that is transmitted between a first node and a second node in a storage area network, wherein the data destined for the second node is redirected to a particular intelligent node, wherein the particular intelligent node is configured to implement a service on the redirected data or forward the redirected data to another node that implements such service, wherein the request includes an identifier for each of the first node, the second node, and the particular intelligent node; (b) for the first network device retaining one or more bindings for the requested redirection based on the received identifiers for the first node, the second node, and the particular intelligent node, wherein the one or more bindings are associated with the received identifiers for the for the first node, the second node and the particular intelligent node, wherein the one or more bindings include at least one binding having a source identifier for a one of the first node or the second node, a destination identifier for another one of the first node or the second node, and a destination identifier for the particular intelligent node; and (c) redirecting the data to the particular intelligent node based on the retained one or more bindings.