Packet switch and method of use

摘要

The present invention relates to a packet switch and a packet switching method. An example embodiment of the present invention comprises at least three network ports, at least one instrument port, a mux-switch, a packet switch fabric, and an address table. The embodiment updates the address table to include the source address of each ingress packet of each network port and associate the source address with that network port. The mux-switch routes the ingress packet traffic of each network port according to the identity of the network port so that at least a copy of the packet traffic of one of the network ports is routed to an instrument port. The packet switch fabric routes the packets from the instrument ports to the network ports according the destination address of the packet and the identity of the network port that is associated with the destination address as recorded in the address table.

主权项

1. A packet switch device for providing visibility of traffic in a network, comprising:
a housing; a processing unit located in the housing; a first network port communicatively coupled to the processing unit, wherein the first network port is configured to communicate with the network by tapping the network; a second network port communicatively coupled to the processing unit, wherein the second network port is configured to communicate with the network by tapping the network; at least one instrument port communicatively coupled to the processing unit, the at least one instrument port configured to transmit information to a first network monitoring instrument that is external to the packet switch device and is in communication with the packet switch device via the at least one instrument port; wherein the processing unit of the packet switch device is configured to create a filter for packet filtering by the packet switch device, and wherein the processing unit is configured to create the filter based on an input received from the first network monitoring instrument, the filter having a packet filtering criteria for matching against a packet portion, the input being provided by the first network monitoring instrument based on the information transmitted to the first network monitoring instrument from the at least one instrument port.