Reduction of network connectivity gaps experienced by inline network appliances

摘要

A network appliance may include a signal splitter that splits an incoming signal into multiple portions. The signal splitter can direct one portion of the incoming signal to a switching fabric and another portion of the incoming signal to an optical switch. By monitoring the power intensity of the portion of the incoming signal received by the switching fabric, the network appliance can seamlessly switch between a bypass traffic path and a pass-through traffic path without losing network traffic caused by gaps in network connectivity. Such a configuration also enables the network appliance to maintain an accurate record of the logical connectivity state even when the network appliance is in the bypass state (i.e., when network traffic bypasses the switching fabric of the network appliance).