Patent Document ID: 8346918
Application ID: 12500527
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. An apparatus to facilitate network monitoring, comprising: a plurality of microcode controlled state machines; a distribution circuit that routes input data to the plurality of microcode controlled state machines, such that: a first individual microcode controlled state machine applies a first rule to the input data to determine first instructions associated with a first subset of the input data based on first sampling information associated with the first rule; and a second individual microcode controlled state machine applies a second rule to the input data to determine second instructions associated with a second subset of the input data based on second sampling information associated with the second rule, wherein the second sampling information differs from the first sampling information; a first circuit that generates first routing instructions for the first subset of the input data based on the first instructions, and that generates second routing instructions for the second subset of the input data based on the second instructions; and a second circuit that routes the input data based on the first routing instructions and the second routing instructions.