DISTRIBUTED FILTERING AND MONITORING SYSTEM FOR A COMPUTER INTERNETWORK

摘要

A system efficiently distributes processing-intensive loads among a plurality of intermediate stations in a computer internetwork. The intermediate stations include routers, bridges, switches and/or firewalls configured with monitoring and filtering agents that communicate via a defined protocol to implement the system. Those stations configured with agents and having available resources cooperate to execute the loads which generally comprise verification operations on digital signatures appended to frame and/or packet traffic traversing paths of the computer internetwork. Techniques associated with the system are directed to efficiently detecting and filtering unauthorized traffic over portions of the internetwork protected as trust domains as well as unprotected portions of the internetwork.