Systems and methods for designating packets for customized data processing in port-extended architectures

A port-extendable system, comprising:

• a control node coupled to one or more satellite nodes:
• receive a data frame that includes a first field having information indicative of an incoming port at which the data frame was received, the first field having been inserted by a satellite node associated with the port;
• determine that one or more packets of a frame require specialized processing by determining that the one or more packets to be sent via an outgoing port is in a blocking state;
• replace the information contained in the first field with information indicative of the specialized processing by inserting, by the control node, data for triggering an ACL policy for forwarding the one or more packets to the DVIF when the outgoing port is no longer in the blocking state;
• replace information contained in a second field with information indicative of an outgoing port of a second satellite node of the port-extended network;
• and
• transmit a modified data frame that includes a payload associated with the received data frame, the information indicative of the specialized processing in the first field, and the information indicative of the outgoing port in the second field.

A method for reassigning unused frame tag headers for addressing packets for specialized egress processing, the method comprising:

• determining, by a control node of a fabric-extended system, that a first condition exists whereby one or more packets of a frame are designated for specialized egress processing;
• replacing, by the control node, data contained in the “source vif_id field” (SVIF) of the “virtual NIC tag” (vnTag) with data associated with the specialized egress processing that triggers an ACL policy for forwarding the one or more packets to the DVIF when the first condition no longer exists;
• replacing, by the control node, data contained in the “destination vif_id field” (DVIF) of the vnTag with data associated with an outgoing port of a satellite node of the fabric-extended system;
• and
• transmitting, by the control node, a data frame containing the vnTag to a fabric network associated with the fabric-extended system.