MIRRORING DROPPED PACKETS

In one embodiment, a network device (10), includes ports (12) to serve as ingress ports and egress ports, a memory to store received network packets, a switch fabric (14), a controller to monitor queues of the egress ports and make a decision to drop at least a network packet of the received network packets, the network packet having a first destination address associated with a first network node, and mirroring circuitry (18) to encapsulate the network packet with an encapsulation header including a second destination address different from the first destination address, and feedback the encapsulated network packet into a processing pipeline of the received network packets within the network device at a point in the processing pipeline that is prior to egress port assignment, wherein the switch fabric (14) is configured to forward the encapsulated network packet to the packet analyzer responsively to the second destination address in the encapsulation header.