Method and apparatus for mapping data traffic flows to application sessions

摘要

The mapping of Internet traffic to application sessions is a very important requirement for both present and future Internet technologies such as dynamic Internet charging, usage & QoS monitoring, QoS provision and QoS control. The invention provides a method and apparatus for performing the mapping to an application session which takes raw traffic flows and filters the flows to remove from consideration those flows which do not meet pre-determined characteristics of the application. For the remaining flows, information concerning the activation and last activation times is compared with corresponding information regarding the application session via one or more logical conditions. Any flows which meet the logical conditions are then mapped to the session.