A Network Bypass Switch is a hardware device, which provides failover or fail-safe capabilities for an inline networking appliance or a network security tool (such as a firewall or an intrusion prevention system). If the appliance fails, its traffic is automatically bypassed, ensuring uninterrupted traffic flow on the network.

Traffic flow relationships between source and destination ports:

Aggregate traffic to single port

• Replicate traffic to multiple ports
• Sophisticated filtering – L2-L4, User Defined Byte (UDB)

Other features include:

• Tunnel and VLAN support
• Flexible multi-load balancing regimes
• User-defined virtual bypass segments
• User configurable packet heartbeat (ms resolution)
• Ingress and egress filters
• Internal loopback for efficient creation of multi-level filter

Protecting network traffic flow in case of appliance failures.

The BypassP2 transmits a user-configurable heartbeat on the appliance ports. In the event of an appliance malfunction (such as a software crash, system failure or loss of power), the failure is detected, and the BypassP2 bypasses the traffic intended for the inline appliance to the network ports, allowing it to continue to flow through the network link. This feature also enables the network appliances or network security tools to be removed and replaced without network downtime. Once the system is backed up, or the power is restored to the appliance, it is detected by the BypassP2 heartbeat mechanism, and network traffic is seamlessly diverted back to the inline device, allowing it to resume its critical functions.