Multi-level learning for classifying traffic flows
AssigneeSilver Peak Systems, Inc.
InventorDavid Anthony Hughes
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Disclosed herein are systems and methods for multi-level classification of data traffic flows. In exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, flows can be classified based on information in a first packet. The classification is based on an inference that can be made by a network appliance from a learning algorithm regarding an application name and/or one or more application characteristic tags. Based on the inference, the network appliance can select an appropriate network path for the flow.
Claims20
A method of selecting a network path for transmitting data across a network, the method comprising:
- receiving at a first network appliance, a first packet of a first flow to be transmitted across a network;
- extracting information from the first packet;
- using an application inference engine influenced by a learning algorithm to infer at least one of an application name and one or more application tags for the first flow based on the extracted information;
- selecting by the first network appliance, a network path based on the inferred at least one of application name and one or more application tags;
- and
- transmitting the first flow by the first network appliance via the selected network path to a destination.
A method of training an inference engine to identify at least one of an application and one or more application characteristics for a flow, the method comprising:
- receiving at a first network appliance, a first packet of a first flow to be transmitted across a network, wherein the network comprises a plurality of network paths;
- extracting information from the first packet;
- using an application inference engine influenced by a learning algorithm to infer at least one of an application name and one or more application characteristic tags based on the extracted information from the first packet;
- selecting by the first network appliance, a network path from the plurality of network paths in the network for transmitting the first flow, the network path selected based on at least one of the inferred application name and inferred one or more application characteristic tags;
- and
- transmitting by the first network appliance, the first flow via the selected network path to a destination.
A system for inferring at least one of an application name and one or more application tags for a first packet of a flow, comprising:
- a feature extraction engine comprising a processor and memory, configured to extract information from the first packet of the flow;
- an inspection engine comprising the processor and the memory, configured to determine whether the extracted information is indicative of a known application name or one or more application tags;
- and
- an inference engine comprising the processor and memory, configured to infer at least one of an application name and one or more known application tags for the first packet based on the extracted information.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.