Monitoring traffic in telecommunications networks
First Claim
1. A method of classifying data traffic in a packet-based communications network conveying different classes of data, including the steps of:
- (a) monitoring a communications network for data traffic to identify a sequence of data packets of unknown class transmitted between a source address and a destination address;
(b) measuring at least one parameter of at least a significant part of the packet sequence, said parameter being any one of;
coding attributes of packets in the sequence;
type of transport protocol used;
type of error protection protocol used;
duration of said sequence; and
correlation between traffic in said sequence and traffic in a further sequence being transported from said destination address back to said source address; and
(c) deriving from the measured parameter a probable classification of the data conveyed in the packet sequence.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus for monitoring traffic in telecommunications networks, in particular applied to the problem of recognizing real-time traffic such as voice traffic in packet- or cell-based networks through network traffic characterization. The method classifies data traffic in a packet-based communications network conveying different classes of data through the monitoring of data traffic so as to identify sequences of data packets of unknown class transmitted between a source address and a destination address, subsequently measuring parameters of at least a significant part of the packet sequence and deriving from the measured parameters a probable classification of the data conveyed in the packet sequence.
27 Citations
36 Claims
-
1. A method of classifying data traffic in a packet-based communications network conveying different classes of data, including the steps of:
-
(a) monitoring a communications network for data traffic to identify a sequence of data packets of unknown class transmitted between a source address and a destination address;
(b) measuring at least one parameter of at least a significant part of the packet sequence, said parameter being any one of;
coding attributes of packets in the sequence;
type of transport protocol used;
type of error protection protocol used;
duration of said sequence; and
correlation between traffic in said sequence and traffic in a further sequence being transported from said destination address back to said source address; and
(c) deriving from the measured parameter a probable classification of the data conveyed in the packet sequence. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
-
-
36. Apparatus for classifying data traffic in a packet-based communications network conveying different classes of data, comprising:
-
(a) monitoring means for monitoring a communications network for data traffic to identify a sequence of data packets of unknown class transmitted between a source address and a destination address;
(b) measuring means for measuring at least one parameter of at least a significant part of the packet sequence, said parameter being any one of;
coding attributes of packets in the sequence;
type of transport protocol used;
type of error protection protocol used;
duration of said sequence; and
correlation between traffic in said sequence and traffic in a further sequence being transported from said destination address back to said source address; and
(c) classification means for deriving from the measured parameter a probable classification of the data conveyed in the packet sequence.
-
Specification