US 12,335,237 B2
Service optimization in networks and cloud interconnects
Balaji Sundararajan, Fremont, CA (US); Venkatesh Nataraj, Union City, CA (US); Kannan Kumar, Tracy, CA (US); Padmanabha Nallur, Fremont, CA (US); Abha Jain, Menlo Park, CA (US); and Kushal Patel, San Jose, CA (US)
Assigned to Cisco Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US)
Filed by Cisco Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US)
Filed on Nov. 30, 2022, as Appl. No. 18/072,374.
Prior Publication US 2024/0179125 A1, May 30, 2024
Int. Cl. H04L 9/40 (2022.01)
CPC H04L 63/0263 (2013.01) [H04L 63/0428 (2013.01)] 18 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method comprising:
receiving, by a first network device located at a first site, a data packet, wherein the data packet corresponds to a data flow between the first network device and a second network device over a network;
identifying a first firewall policy associated with the first network device, the first firewall policy being provided by a controller and identifying a first firewall of the network configured to inspect the data packet;
inspecting, based at least in part on the first firewall policy and by the first firewall of the network, the data packet by the first network device;
adding, by the first network device, a marker to a header of the data packet to indicate inspection by the first firewall, the marker comprising unified threat defense (UTD) metadata;
transmitting, via the network, the data packet to the second network device at a second site;
identifying, based on receiving the data packet and by the second network device, a second firewall policy associated with the second network device, wherein the UTD metadata indicates a profile identifier applied to the data packet by the first firewall, wherein identifying the second firewall policy is based on extracting the profile identifier; and
determining, by the second network device, based at least in part on the second firewall policy and extracting the marker from the header, to refrain from inspecting the data packet.