Apparatus and method for pattern matching in text based protocol
AssigneeP-Cube Ltd.
InventorsAssaf Zeira, Elyahou Kamhine
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A search engine for matching textual patterns in a traffic stream. The search engine comprises a traffic control unit, a micro-code memory, a comparator and a report memory. The traffic control unit is capable of managing the traffic stream. The micro-code memory is capable of storing and retrieving micro-code instructions. The comparator is capable of executing said micro-code instructions to match the textual patterns. The report memory is capable of storing and retrieving reports generated said comparator.
Claims50
A search engine for matching textual patterns in a traffic stream, the search engine comprising:
- a traffic control unit capable of managing the traffic stream comprising a sequence of data packets;
- a microcode memory capable of storing and retrieving microcode instructions corresponding to a textual pattern;
- a comparator capable of executing said micro-code instructions to match the textual pattern to a data sequence beginning in a first packet of said traffic stream and ending in a second packet subsequent to the first packet in said traffic stream;
- and
- a report memory capable of storing and retrieving reports generated by said comparator responsively to a result of matching said textual pattern to said data sequence,
- wherein the comparator is arranged to generate and save in the report memory at least one of a current instruction number and a traffic pointer value after matching a part of the textual pattern in the first packet, and to retrieve the at least one of the current instruction number and the traffic pointer value in order to continue matching the textual pattern in the second packet.
A method for matching textual patterns, comprising:
- accepting a traffic stream comprising a sequence of data packets;
- using a comparator, executing microcode instructions stored in a micro-code memory, said instructions corresponding to a textual pattern, so as to match said textual pattern to a data sequence beginning in a first packet of said traffic stream and ending in a second packet subsequent to said first packet in said traffic stream;
- and
- generating a report responsively to a result of matching said data sequence to said textual pattern and storing said report in a report memory;
- and
- generating and saving in the report memory at least one of a current instruction number and a traffic pointer value after matching a part of the textual pattern in the first packet, and retrieving the at least one of the current instruction number and the traffic pointer value in order to continue matching the textual pattern in the second packet.
A program product for matching textual patterns in a traffic stream that includes a sequence of data packets, said product comprising a memory in which micro-code instructions are stored, which instructions, when executed by a processor, cause said processor to match a textual pattern to a data sequence beginning in a first packet of said traffic stream and ending in a second packet subsequent to the first packet in said traffic stream, to generate a report responsively to a result of matching said data sequence to said textual pattern, to generate and save at least one of a current instruction number and a traffic pointer value after matching a part of the textual pattern in the first packet, and to retrieve the at least one of the current instruction number and the traffic pointer value in order to continue matching the textual pattern in the second packet.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.