METHOD OF MONITORING NETWORK TRAFFIC BY MEANS OF DESCRIPTIVE METADATA

摘要

The present invention provides a process for traffic monitoring comprising the steps of classifying information either as information relevant for traffic classification or as relevant for traffic accounting, generating metadata based on the information relevant for traffic classification, wherein this metadata information comprises the data necessary to classify this packet or flow into a specific application or service, and exporting the generated metadata through an interface, adapted to store and/or send the metadata to another device or module. This process reduces the complexity of DPI equipment and makes possible to build real-time traffic characterization systems which scale well in networks with high traffic volumes.