Communication traffic type determination devices and methods

A device comprising:

• an interface for receiving blocks of communication traffic;
• a plurality of analysis modules operatively coupled to the interface and operable to concurrently analyze a received block of communication traffic relative to respective traffic type definitions, each analysis module of the plurality of analysis modules being further operable to provide an indication of whether the received block of communication traffic conforms to its respective traffic type definition, wherein the respective traffic type definitions comprise definitions associated with a level in a multi-level traffic type definition;
• a plurality of further analysis modules operatively coupled to the interface and operable to concurrently analyze the received block of communication traffic relative to respective further traffic type definitions associated with a different level in the multi-level traffic type definition, and to provide an indication of whether the received block of communication traffic conforms to each of the respective further traffic type definitions;
• and
• a definition set selector operatively coupled to the interface, to the plurality of analysis modules, and to the plurality of further analysis modules, the definition set selector being operable to detect, in overhead of the received block of communication traffic, an indication of a type of the received block of communication traffic at a level of the multi-level traffic type definition, and to determine, based on the detected indication and a hierarchy of the multi-level traffic type definition, whether the received block of communication traffic is to be analyzed by the analysis modules or by the further analysis modules.

A device comprising:

• an interface for receiving blocks of communication traffic;
• a plurality of analysis modules operatively coupled to the interface and operable to concurrently analyze a received block of communication traffic relative to respective traffic type definitions, each analysis module of the plurality of analysis modules being further operable to provide an indication of whether the received block of communication traffic conforms to its respective traffic type definition;
• and
• a parameter input interface operatively coupled to the plurality of analysis modules and operable to receive and provide to the plurality of analysis modules a type determination parameter, the plurality of analysis modules comprising an analysis module that is operable to determine whether the received block of communication traffic conforms to its respective traffic type definition based on the received block of communication traffic and the received type determination parameter,
• wherein the type determination parameter comprises at least one of:
• a time of day, an alert associated with a communication system through which the communication traffic is received, a communication traffic history, and, where the respective traffic type definitions comprise definitions associated with a level in a multi-level traffic type definition, an indication of whether the received block of communication traffic conforms to a further traffic type definition associated with a different level in the multi-level traffic type definition.

A method comprising:

• receiving a block of communication traffic;
• a plurality of analysis modules, comprising at least one analysis module implemented using a processing element, performing a parallel analysis of the received block of communication traffic relative to a plurality of traffic type definitions, the plurality of analysis modules being operable to concurrently analyze the received block of communication traffic relative to respective traffic type definitions of the plurality of traffic type definitions;
• and
• each analysis module of the plurality of analysis modules providing a respective indication of whether the received block of communication traffic conforms to its respective traffic type definition of the plurality of traffic type definitions,
• wherein the plurality of traffic type definitions comprises definitions associated with a predetermined level in a hierarchy of a multilevel traffic type definition,
• the method further comprising, where the hierarchy comprises groups of types at the predetermined level associated with respective types at a higher level in the hierarchy, determining a type of the received block of communication traffic at the higher level,
• wherein performing comprises the plurality of analysis modules analyzing the received block of communication traffic relative to each traffic type definition corresponding to a type in the group of types associated with the determined type.