Patent · US Expired

Switch port analyzers

US7474666B2 · kind B2 · utility

42Cited by
12References
47Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateSep 3, 2003
Grant dateJan 6, 2009
Priority date
Expiry dateMar 5, 2026

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L2212/00
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Methods and devices are provided for non-disruptive monitoring of network traffic through one or more ports of a Fibre Channel network device. Preferred embodiments of the invention are used in conjunction with the switched port analyzer (“SPAN”) and/or remote SPAN (“RSPAN”) features. SPAN mode operation allows traffic through any Fibre Channel interface of a network device to be replicated and delivered to a single port on the same network device. Ingress SPAN allows the monitoring of some or all packets that ingress a specified port or ports. Egress SPAN allows the monitoring of some or all packets that egress a specified port or ports. RSPAN allows the delivery of the replicated traffic to a port on a remote network device. Filtering may be applied, for example, to SPAN packets having selected virtual storage area network numbers.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.