APPARATUS FOR ANALYZING A DATA PACKET, A DATA PACKET PROCESSING SYSTEM AND A METHOD

• US 20120170584A1
• Filed: 09/15/2010
• Published: 07/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Napatech A/S
• Original Assignee: Napatech A/S
• Inventors: Christophersen, Jens
• Granted Patent: US 8,929,378 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/392
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/38 Flow based routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/745 Address table lookup; Address filtering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2441 relying on flow classification, e.g. using integrated services [IntServ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/3009 Header conversion, routing tables or routing tags
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/12 Protocol engines
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers

Abstract

An apparatus and method for analyzing a data packet, where the first and second information is derived relating to the data packet. The first information relates to a type of the data packet, a standard to which the data packet conforms and/or which data item(s) is/are present in the data packet. The first information is used for identifying a function into which the second information is input to generate third, and this third information is output together with at least part of the data packet.

Claims

1. An apparatus for analyzing a data packet, the apparatus comprising:

means for accessing data of the data packet and outputting first and second information relating to the data packet,

means for, on the basis of the first information, selecting one of a plurality of predetermined functions,

means for deriving third information by applying the selected function to the second information, and

means for outputting the third information together with at least part of the data packet,

wherein the accessing means is adapted to output the first information relating to a type of the data packet, a standard to which the data packet conforms and/or which data item(s) is/are present in the data packet.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the outputting means are adapted to further output information identifying the selected function.

3. An apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising means for holding user-defined information correlating each of a plurality of predetermined first information with one of the plurality of predetermined functions.

4. An apparatus according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the data packet is an Ethernet packet and wherein the accessing means are adapted to output as at least part of the first information, information relating to any encapsulation(s) of the packet and/or which of a plurality of predefined types of Ethernet packet the data packet is.

5. An apparatus according to any of claims 1-4, further comprising a plurality of outputs, wherein the outputting means is adapted to, for a data packet, identify an output on the basis of the third information relating to the data packet and output the third information relating to the data packet and the at least part of the data packet on the identified output.

6. A data processing system comprising an apparatus according to any of claims 1-5, the system further comprising a plurality of processing elements, wherein the outputting means are adapted to identify, on the basis of the data packet and/or the first, second and/or third information, a processing element and to output the at least parts of the data packet and the third information to the identified processing element.

7. A data processing system according to claim 6, wherein the outputting means are adapted to identify the processing element on the basis of the third information.

8. A data processing system according to claim 6 or 7, wherein the apparatus is an apparatus according to claim 5 and wherein each processing element is adapted to receive the third information and the at least part of a data packet from a predetermined output.

14. A method of operating the data processing system according to claim 6, wherein the outputting step comprises identifying, on the basis of the data packet and/or the first, second and/or third information, a processing element and outputting the at least parts of the data packet and the third information to the identified processing element.

15. A method according to claim 14, wherein the outputting step comprises identifying the processing element on the basis of the third information.

16. A method according to claim 14 or 15, wherein the apparatus further has a plurality of outputs, and wherein the outputting step comprises, for a data packet, identifying an output on the basis of the third information relating to the data packet and outputting the third information relating to the data packet and the at least part of the data packet on the identified output.

9. A method of analyzing a data packet, the method comprising:

deriving and outputting, from the data packet, first and second information relating to the data packet,

selecting, on the basis of the first information, one of a plurality of predetermined functions,

deriving third information by applying the selected function to the second information, and

outputting the third information together with at least part of the data packet,

wherein the first information relates to a type of the data packet, a standard to which the data packet conforms and/or which data item(s) is/are present in the data packet.

10. A method according to claim 9, wherein the outputting step further comprises outputting information identifying the selected function.

11. A method according to claim 9 or 10, wherein the selecting step comprises selecting the function on the basis of user-defined information correlating each of a plurality of predetermined first information with one of the plurality of predetermined functions.

12. A method according to any of claims 9-11, wherein the data packet is an Ethernet packet and wherein the deriving/outputting step comprises outputting as at least part of the first information, information relating to any encapsulation(s) of the packet and/or which of a plurality of predefined types of Ethernet packet the data packet is.

13. A method according to any of claims 9-12, wherein the outputting step comprises, for a data packet, identifying one of a plurality of outputs on the basis of the third information relating to the data packet and outputting the third information relating to the data packet and the at least part of the data packet to the identified output.