Apparatus and methods for forwarding data packets captured from a network

摘要

In one embodiment, packet forwarding apparatus includes a data packet receiving interface, a data packet forwarding interface, and a configuration interface. The apparatus also includes circuitry that defines a plurality of data packet forwarding paths between the data packet receiving interface and the data packet forwarding interface. The circuitry defines at least one of the plurality of data packet forwarding paths in response to input received via the configuration interface, and the circuitry adaptively reconfigures at least one of the plurality of data packet forwarding paths i) in response to input received via the configuration interface, and ii) while data packets are being received by the packet forwarding apparatus.

主权项

1. A system, comprising:
a data packet capture apparatus; a data packet forwarding apparatus including:
a data packet receiving interface;a data packet forwarding interface;a configuration interface; andcircuitry that implements a plurality of data packet forwarding paths between the data packet receiving interface and the data packet forwarding interface, the circuitry configuring at least one of the plurality of data packet forwarding paths in response to input received via the configuration interface, and the circuitry adaptively reconfiguring at least one of the plurality of data packet forwarding paths i) in response to input received via the configuration interface, and ii) while data packets are being received by the packet forwarding apparatus, wherein one of the data packet forwarding paths includes a data packet sampling circuit and wherein adaptively re-configuring at least one of the plurality of data packet forwarding paths includes changing a parameter of the data packet sampling circuit and, by changing the parameter, changing a rate at which packets are forwarded to a downstream application from an arbitrary or high speed flow rate at which data packets are captured from a network to a lower flow rate that is within the processing capacity of the downstream application, wherein each of the captured data packets comprises packetized information carried over the network, wherein the downstream application comprises a traffic monitoring and analysis application and wherein changing the rate at which packets are forwarded to the downstream application includes forwarding only a subset of the captured data packets to the traffic monitoring and analysis application,wherein the subset comprises every n-th captured data packet or n captured data packet per a given time period, wherein n is a number; andwherein the data packet receiving interface comprises a real-time data packet receiving interface and a non-real-time data packet receiving interface; and the circuitry defines at least one real-time data packet forwarding path and at least one non-real-time data packet forwarding path.