Patent attributes
Communication apparatus includes multiple interfaces connected to a packet data network and at least one memory configured as a buffer to contain packets received through the ingress interfaces while awaiting transmission to the network via respective egress interfaces. Processing circuitry is configured to identify data flows to which the data packets that are received through the ingress interfaces belong, to assess respective bandwidth characteristics of the data flows, and to select one or more of the data flows as candidate flows for mirroring responsively to the respective bandwidth characteristics. The processing circuitry selects, responsively to one or more predefined mirroring criteria, one or more of the data packets in the candidate flows for analysis by a network manager, and sends the selected data packets to the network manager over the network via one of the egress interfaces.