Method and apparatus for monitoring traffic in a network

Abstract

A monitor for and a method of examining packets passing through a connection point on a computer network. Each packets conforms to one or more protocols. The method includes receiving a packet from a packet acquisition device and performing one or more parsing/extraction operations on the packet to create a parser record comprising a function of selected portions of the packet. The parsing/extraction operations depend on one or more of the protocols to which the packet conforms. The method further includes looking up a flow-entry database containing flow-entries for previously encountered conversational flows. The lookup uses the selected packet portions and determining if the packet is of an existing flow. If the packet is of an existing flow, the method classifies the packet as belonging to the found existing flow, and if the packet is of a new flow, the method stores a new flow-entry for the new flow in the flow-entry database, including identifying information for future packets to be identified with the new flow-entry. For the packet of an existing flow, the method updates the flow-entry of the existing flow. Such updating may include storing one or more statistical measures. Any stage of a flow, state is maintained, and the method performs any state processing for an identified state to further the process of identifying the flow. The method thus examines each and every packet passing through the connection point in real time until the application program associated with the conversational flow is determined.

Description

FIELD OF INVENTION

[0008] The present invention relates to computer networks, specifically to the real-time elucidation of packets communicated within a data network, including classification according to protocol and application program.

BACKGROUND TO THE PRESENT INVENTION

[0009] There has long been a need for network activity monitors. This need has become especially acute, however, given the recent popularity of the Internet and other internets—an “internet” being any plurality of interconnected networks which forms a larger, single network. With the growth of networks used as a collection of clients obtaining services from one or more servers on the network, it is increasingly important to be able to monitor the use of those services and to rate them accordingly. Such objective information, for example, as which services (i.e., application programs) are being used, who is using them, how often they have been accessed, and for how long, is very useful in the maintenance and continued operation of these networks. It is especially important that selected users be able to access a network remotely in order to generate reports on network use in real time. Similarly, a need exists for a real-time network monitor that can provide alarms notifying selected users of problems that may occur with the network or site.

[0010] One prior art monitoring method uses log files. In this method, selected network activities may be analyzed retrospectively by reviewing log files, which are maintained by network servers and gateways. Log file monitors must access this data and analyze (“mine”) its contents to determine statistics about the server or gateway. Several problems exist with this method, however. First, log file information does not provide a map of real-time usage; and secondly, log file mining does not supply complete information. This method relies on logs maintained by numerous network devices and servers, which requires that the information be subjected to refining and correlation. Also, sometimes information is simply not available to any gateway or server in order to make a log file entry.

[0011] One such case, for example, would be information concerning NetMeeting® (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Wash.) sessions in which two computers connect directly on the network and the data is never seen by a server or a gateway.

[0012] Another disadvantage of creating log files is that the process requires data logging features of network elements to be enabled, placing a substantial load on the device, which results in a subsequent decline in network performance. Additionally, log files can grow rapidly, there is no standard means of storage for them, and they require a significant amount of maintenance.

[0013] Though Netflow® (Cisco Systems, Inc., San Jose, Calif.), RMON2, and other network monitors are available for the real-time monitoring of networks, they lack visibility into application content and are typically limited to providing network layer level information.

[0014] Pattern-matching parser techniques wherein a packet is parsed and pattern filters are applied are also known, but these too are limited in how deep into the protocol stack they can examine packets.

[0015] Some prior art packet monitors classify packets into connection flows. The term “connection flow” is commonly used to describe all the packets involved with a single connection. A conversational flow, on the other hand, is the sequence of packets that are exchanged in any direction as a result of an activity-for instance, the running of an application on a server as requested by a client. It is desirable to be able to identify and classify conversational flows rather than only connection flows. The reason for this is that some conversational flows involve more than one connection, and some even involve more than one exchange of packets between a client and server. This is particularly true when using client/server protocols such as RPC, DCOMP, and SAP, which enable a service to be set up or defined prior to any use of that service.

[0016] An example of such a case is the SAP (Service Advertising Protocol), a NetWare (Novell Systems, Provo, Utah) protocol used to identify the services and addresses of servers attached to a network. In the initial exchange, a client might send a SAP request to a server for print service. The server would then send a SAP reply that identifies a particular address—for example, SAP#5—as the print service on that server. Such responses might be used to update a table in a router, for instance, known as a Server Information Table. A client who has inadvertently seen this reply or who has access to the table (via the router that has the Service Information Table) would know that SAP#5 for this particular server is a print service. Therefore, in order to print data on the server, such a client would not need to make a request for a print service, but would simply send data to be printed specifying SAP#5. Like the previous exchange, the transmission of data to be printed also involves an exchange between a client and a server, but requires a second connection and is therefore independent of the initial exchange. In order to eliminate the possibility of disjointed conversational exchanges, it is desirable for a network packet monitor to be able to “virtually concatenate”—that is, to link—the first exchange with the second. If the clients were the same, the two packet exchanges would then be correctly identified as being part of the same conversational flow.

[0017] Other protocols that may lead to disjointed flows, include RPC (Remote Procedure Call); DCOM (Distributed Component Object Model), formerly called Network OLE (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Wash.); and CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture). RPC is a programming interface from Sun Microsystems (Palo Alto, Calif.) that allows one program to use the services of another program in a remote machine. DCOM, Microsoft's counterpart to CORBA, defines the remote procedure call that allows those objects—objects are self-contained software modules—to be run remotely over the network. And CORBA, a standard from the Object Management Group (OMG) for communicating between distributed objects, provides a way to execute programs (objects) written in different programming languages running on different platforms regardless of where they reside in a network.

[0018] What is needed, therefore, is a network monitor that makes it possible to continuously analyze all user sessions on a heavily trafficked network. Such a monitor should enable non-intrusive, remote detection, characterization, analysis, and capture of all information passing through any point on the network (i.e., of all packets and packet streams passing through any location in the network). Not only should all the packets be detected and analyzed, but for each of these packets the network monitor should determine the protocol (e.g., http, ftp, H.323, VPN, etc.), the application/use within the protocol (e.g., voice, video, data, real-time data, etc.), and an end user's pattern of use within each application or the application context (e.g., options selected, service delivered, duration, time of day, data requested, etc.). Also, the network monitor should not be reliant upon server resident information such as log files. Rather, it should allow a user such as a network administrator or an Internet service provider (ISP) the means to measure and analyze network activity objectively; to customize the type of data that is collected and analyzed; to undertake real time analysis; and to receive timely notification of network problems.

[0019] Considering the previous SAP example again, because one features of the invention is to correctly identify the second exchange as being associated with a print service on that server, such exchange would even be recognized if the clients were not the same. What distinguishes this invention from prior art network monitors is that it has the ability to recognize disjointed flows as belonging to the same conversational flow.

[0020] The data value in monitoring network communications has been recognized by many inventors. Chiu, et al., describe a method for collecting information at the session level in a computer network in U.S. Pat. No. 5,101,402, titled “APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR REAL-TIME MONITORING OF NETWORK SESSIONS AND A LOCAL AREA NETWORK” (the “402 patent”). The 402 patent specifies fixed locations for particular types of packets to extract information to identify session of a packet. For example, if a DECnet packet appears, the 402 patent looks at six specific fields (at 6 locations) in the packet in order to identify the session of the packet. If, on the other hand, an IP packet appears, a different set of six different locations is specified for an IP packet. With the proliferation of protocols, clearly the specifying of all the possible places to look to determine the session becomes more and more difficult. Likewise, adding a new protocol or application is difficult. In the present invention, the locations examined and the information extracted from any packet are adaptively determined from information in the packet for the particular type of packet. There is no fixed definition of what to look for and where to look in order to form an identifying signature. A monitor implementation of the present invention, for example, adapts to handle differently IEEE 802.3 packet from the older Ethernet Type 2 (or Version 2) DIX (Digital-Intel-Xerox) packet.

[0021] The 402 patent system is able to recognize up to the session layer. In the present invention, the number of levels examined varies for any particular protocol. Furthermore, the present invention is capable of examining up to whatever level is sufficient to uniquely identify to a required level, even all the way to the application level (in the OSI model).

[0022] Other prior art systems also are known. Phael describes a network activity monitor that processes only randomly selected packets in U.S. Pat. No. 5,315,580, titled “NETWORK MONITORING DEVICE AND SYSTEM.” Nakamura teaches a network monitoring system in U.S. Pat. No. 4,891,639, titled “MONITORING SYSTEM OF NETWORK.” Ross, et al., teach a method and apparatus for analyzing and monitoring network activity in U.S. Pat. No. 5,247,517, titled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ANALYSIS NETWORKS,” McCreery, et al., describe an Internet activity monitor that decodes packet data at the Internet protocol level layer in U.S. Pat. No. 5,787,253, titled “APPARATUS AND METHOD OF ANALYZING INTERNET ACTIVITY.” The McCreery method decodes IP-packets. It goes through the decoding operations for each packet, and therefore uses the processing overhead for both recognized and unrecognized flows. In a monitor implementation of the present invention, a signature is built for every flow such that future packets of the flow are easily recognized. When a new packet in the flow arrives, the recognition process can commence from where it last left off, and a new signature built to recognize new packets of the flow.

SUMMARY

[0023] In its various embodiments the present invention provides a network monitor that can accomplish one or more of the following objects and advantages:

[0024] Recognize and classify all packets that are exchanges between a client and server into respective client/server applications.

[0025] Recognize and classify at all protocol layer levels conversational flows that pass in either direction at a point in a network.

[0026] Determine the connection and flow progress between clients and servers according to the individual packets exchanged over a network.

[0027] Be used to help tune the performance of a network according to the current mix of client/server applications requiring network resources.

[0028] Maintain statistics relevant to the mix of client/server applications using network resources.

[0029] Report on the occurrences of specific sequences of packets used by particular applications for client/server network conversational flows.

[0030] Other aspects of embodiments of the invention are:

[0031] Properly analyzing each of the packets exchanged between a client and a server and maintaining information relevant to the current state of each of these conversational flows.

[0032] Providing a flexible processing system that can be tailored or adapted as new applications enter the client/server market.

[0033] Maintaining statistics relevant to the conversational flows in a client/sever network as classified by an individual application.

[0034] Reporting a specific identifier, which may be used by other network-oriented devices to identify the series of packets with a specific application for a specific client/server network conversational flow.

[0035] In general, the embodiments of the present invention overcome the problems and disadvantages of the art.

[0036] As described herein, one embodiment analyzes each of the packets passing through any point in the network in either direction, in order to derive the actual application used to communicate between a client and a server. Note that there could be several simultaneous and overlapping applications executing over the network that are independent and asynchronous.

[0037] A monitor embodiment of the invention successfully classifies each of the individual packets as they are seen on the network. The contents of the packets are parsed and selected parts are assembled into a signature (also called a key) that may then be used identify further packets of the same conversational flow, for example to further analyze the flow and ultimately to recognize the application program. Thus the key is a function of the selected parts, and in the preferred embodiment, the function is a concatenation of the selected parts. The preferred embodiment forms and remembers the state of any conversational flow, which is determined by the relationship between individual packets and the entire conversational flow over the network. By remembering the state of a flow in this way, the embodiment determines the context of the conversational flow, including the application program it relates to and parameters such as the time, length of the conversational flow, data rate, etc.

[0038] The monitor is flexible to adapt to future applications developed for client/server networks. New protocols and protocol combinations may be incorporated by compiling files written in a high-level protocol description language.

[0039] The monitor embodiment of the present invention is preferably implemented in application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) or field programmable gate arrays (FPGA). In one embodiment, the monitor comprises a parser subsystem that forms a signature from a packet. The monitor further comprises an analyzer subsystem that receives the signature from the parser subsystem.

[0040] A packet acquisition device such as a media access controller (MAC) or a segmentation and reassemble module is used to provide packets to the parser subsystem of the monitor.

[0041] In a hardware implementation, the parsing subsystem comprises two sub-parts, the pattern analysis and recognition engine (PRE), and an extraction engine (slicer). The PRE interprets each packet, and in particular, interprets individual fields in each packet according to a pattern database.

[0042] The different protocols that can exist in different layers may be thought of as nodes of one or more trees of linked nodes. The packet type is the root of a tree. Each protocol is either a parent node or a terminal node. A parent node links a protocol to other protocols (child protocols) that can be at higher layer levels. For example, An Ethernet packet (the root node) may be an Ethertype packet—also called an Ethernet Type/Version 2 and a DIX (DIGITAL-Intel-Xerox packet)—or an IEEE 802.3 packet. Continuing with the IEEE 802.3-type packet, one of the children nodes may be the IP protocol, and one of the children of the IP protocol may be the TCP protocol.

[0043] The pattern database includes a description of the different headers of packets and their contents, and how these relate to the different nodes in a tree. The PRE traverses the tree as far as it can. If a node does not include a link to a deeper level, pattern matching is declared complete. Note that protocols can be the children of several parents. If a unique node was generated for each of the possible parent/child trees, the pattern database might become excessively large. Instead, child nodes are shared among multiple parents, thus compacting the pattern database.

[0044] Finally the PRE can be used on its own when only protocol recognition is required.

[0045] For each protocol recognized, the slicer extracts important packet elements from the packet. These form a signature (i.e., key) for the packet. The slicer also preferably generates a hash for rapidly identifying a flow that may have this signature from a database of known flows.

[0046] The flow signature of the packet, the hash and at least some of the payload are passed to an analyzer subsystem. In a hardware embodiment, the analyzer subsystem includes a unified flow key buffer (UFKB) for receiving parts of packets from the parser subsystem and for storing signatures in process, a lookup/update engine (LUE) to lookup a database of flow records for previously encountered conversational flows to determine whether a signature is from an existing flow, a state processor (SP) for performing state processing, a flow insertion and deletion engine (FIDE) for inserting new flows into the database of flows, a memory for storing the database of flows, and a cache for speeding up access to the memory containing the flow database. The LUE, SP, and FIDE are all coupled to the UFKB, and to the cache.

[0047] The unified flow key buffer thus contains the flow signature of the packet, the hash and at least some of the payload for analysis in the analyzer subsystem. Many operations can be performed to further elucidate the identity of the application program content of the packet involved in the client/server conversational flow while a packet signature exists in the unified flow signature buffer. In the particular hardware embodiment of the analyzer subsystem several flows may be processed in parallel, and multiple flow signatures from all the packets being analyzed in parallel may be held in the one UFKB.

[0048] The first step in the packet analysis process of a packet from the parser subsystem is to lookup the instance in the current database of known packet flow signatures. A lookup/update engine (LUE) accomplishes this task using first the hash, and then the flow signature. The search is carried out in the cache and if there is no flow with a matching signature in the cache, the lookup engine attempts to retrieve the flow from the flow database in the memory. The flow-entry for previously encountered flows preferably includes state information, which is used in the state processor to execute any operations defined for the state, and to determine the next state. A typical state operation may be to search for one or more known reference strings in the payload of the packet stored in the UFKB.

[0049] Once the lookup processing by the LUE has been completed a flag stating whether it is found or is new is set within the unified flow signature buffer structure for this packet flow signature. For an existing flow, the flow-entry is updated by a calculator component of the LUE that adds values to counters in the flow-entry database used to store one or more statistical measures of the flow. The counters are used for determining network usage metrics on the flow.

[0050] After the packet flow signature has been looked up and contents of the current flow signature are in the database, a state processor can begin analyzing the packet payload to further elucidate the identity of the application program component of this packet. The exact operation of the state processor and functions performed by it will vary depending on the current packet sequence in the stream of a conversational flow. The state processor moves to the next logical operation stored from the previous packet seen with this same flow signature. If any processing is required on this packet, the state processor will execute instructions from a database of state instruction for this state until there are either no more left or the instruction signifies processing.

[0051] In the preferred embodiment, the state processor functions are programmable to provide for analyzing new application programs, and new sequences of packets and states that can arise from using such application.

[0052] If during the lookup process for this particular packet flow signature, the flow is required to be inserted into the active database, a flow insertion and deletion engine (FIDE) is initiated. The state processor also may create new flow signatures and thus may instruct the flow insertion and deletion engine to add a new flow to the database as a new item.

[0053] In the preferred hardware embodiment, each of the LUE, state processor, and FIDE operate independently from the other two engines.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0054] Although the present invention is better understood by referring to the detailed preferred embodiments, these should not be taken to limit the present invention to any specific embodiment because such embodiments are provided only for the purposes of explanation. The embodiments, in turn, are explained with the aid of the following figures.

[0055] FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a network embodiment of the present invention in which a monitor is connected to analyze packets passing at a connection point.

[0056] FIG. 2 is a diagram representing an example of some of the packets and their formats that might be exchanged in starting, as an illustrative example, a conversational flow between a client and server on a network being monitored and analyzed. A pair of flow signatures particular to this example and to embodiments of the present invention is also illustrated. This represents some of the possible flow signatures that can be generated and used in the process of analyzing packets and of recognizing the particular server applications that produce the discrete application packet exchanges.

[0057] FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of a process embodiment of the present invention that can operate as the packet monitor shown in FIG. 1. This process may be implemented in software or hardware.

[0058] FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a high-level protocol language compiling and optimization process, which in one embodiment may be used to generate data for monitoring packets according to versions of the present invention.

[0059] FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a packet parsing process used as part of the parser in an embodiment of the inventive packet monitor.

[0060] FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a packet element extraction process that is used as part of the parser in an embodiment of the inventive packet monitor.

[0061] FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a flow-signature building process that is used as part of the parser in the inventive packet monitor.

[0062] FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a monitor lookup and update process that is used as part of the analyzer in an embodiment of the inventive packet monitor.

[0063] FIG. 9 is a flowchart of an exemplary Sun Microsystems Remote Procedure Call application than may be recognized by the inventive packet monitor.

[0064] FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram of a hardware parser subsystem including the pattern recognizer and extractor that can form part of the parser module in an embodiment of the inventive packet monitor.

[0065] FIG. 11 is a functional block diagram of a hardware analyzer including a state processor that can form part of an embodiment of the inventive packet monitor.

[0066] FIG. 12 is a functional block diagram of a flow insertion and deletion engine process that can form part of the analyzer in an embodiment of the inventive packet monitor.

[0067] FIG. 13 is a flowchart of a state processing process that can form part of the analyzer in an embodiment of the inventive packet monitor.

[0068] FIG. 14 is a simple functional block diagram of a process embodiment of the present invention that can operate as the packet monitor shown in FIG. 1. This process may be implemented in software.

[0069] FIG. 15 is a functional block diagram of how the packet monitor of FIG. 3 (and FIGS. 10 and 11) may operate on a network with a processor such as a microprocessor.

[0070] FIG. 16 is an example of the top (MAC) layer of an Ethernet packet and some of the elements that may be extracted to form a signature according to one aspect of the invention.

[0071] FIG. 17A is an example of the header of an Ethertype type of Ethernet packet of FIG. 16 and some of the elements that may be extracted to form a signature according to one aspect of the invention.

[0072] FIG. 17B is an example of an IP packet, for example, of the Ethertype packet shown in FIGS. 16 and 17A, and some of the elements that may be extracted to form a signature according to one aspect of the invention.

[0073] FIG. 18A is a three dimensional structure that can be used to store elements of the pattern, parse and extraction database used by the parser subsystem in accordance to one embodiment of the invention.

[0074] FIG. 18B is an alternate form of storing elements of the pattern, parse and extraction database used by the parser subsystem in accordance to another embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0075] Note that this document includes hardware diagrams and descriptions that may include signal names. In most cases, the names are sufficiently descriptive, in other cases however the signal names are not needed to understand the operation and practice of the invention.

Operation in a Network

[0076] FIG. 1 represents a system embodiment of the present invention that is referred to herein by the general reference numeral 100. The system 100 has a computer network 102 that communicates packets (e.g., IP datagrams) between various computers, for example between the clients 104-107 and servers 110 and 112. The network is shown schematically as a cloud with several network nodes and links shown in the interior of the cloud. A monitor 108 examines the packets passing in either direction past its connection point 121 and, according to one aspect of the invention, can elucidate what application programs are associated with each packet. The monitor 108 is shown examining packets (i.e., datagrams) between the network interface 116 of the server 110 and the network. The monitor can also be placed at other points in the network, such as connection point 123 between the network 102 and the interface 118 of the client 104, or some other location, as indicated schematically by connection point 125 somewhere in network 102. Not shown is a network packet acquisition device at the location 123 on the network for converting the physical information on the network into packets for input into monitor 108. Such packet acquisition devices are common.

[0077] Various protocols may be employed by the network to establish and maintain the required communication, e.g., TCP/IP, etc. Any network activity—for example an application program run by the client 104 (CLIENT 1) communicating with another running on the server 110 (SERVER 2)—will produce an exchange of a sequence of packets over network 102 that is characteristic of the respective programs and of the network protocols. Such characteristics may not be completely revealing at the individual packet level. It may require the analyzing many packets by the monitor 108 to have enough information needed to recognize particular application programs. The packets may need to be parsed then analyzed in the context of various protocols, for example, the transport through the application session layer protocols for packets of a type conforming to the ISO layered network model.

[0078] Communication protocols are layered, which is also referred to as a protocol stack. The ISO (International Standardization Organization) has defined a general model that provides a framework for design of communication protocol layers. This model, shown in table form below, serves as a basic reference for understanding the functionality of existing communication protocols.

Layer	Functionality	Example
7	Application	Telnet, NFS, Novell NCP, HTTP,
		H.323
6	Presentation	XDR
5	Session	RPC, NETBIOS, SNMP, etc.
4	Transport	TCP, Novel SPX, UDP, etc.
3	Network	IP, Novell IPX, VIP, AppleTalk, etc.
2	Data Link	Network Interface Card (Hardware
		Interface). MAC layer
1	Physical	Ethernet, Token Ring, Frame Relay,
		ATM, T1 (Hardware Connection)

[0079] Different communication protocols employ different levels of the ISO model or may use a layer model that is similar to but which does not exactly conform to the ISO model. A protocol in a certain layer may not be visible to protocols employed at other layers. For example, an application (Level 7) may not be able to identify the source computer for a communication attempt (Levels 2-3).

[0080] In some communication arts, the term “frame” generally refers to encapsulated data at OSI layer 2, including a destination address, control bits for flow control, the data or payload, and CRC (cyclic redundancy check) data for error checking. The term “packet” generally refers to encapsulated data at OSI layer 3. In the TCP/IP world, the term “datagram” is also used. In this specification, the term “packet” is intended to encompass packets, datagrams, frames, and cells. In general, a packet format or frame format refers to how data is encapsulated with various fields and headers for transmission across a network. For example, a data packet typically includes an address destination field, a length field, an error correcting code (ECC) field, or cyclic redundancy check (CRC) field, as well as headers and footers to identify the beginning and end of the packet. The terms “packet format” and “frame format,” also referred to as “cell format,” are generally synonymous.

[0081] Monitor 108 looks at every packet passing the connection point 121 for analysis. However, not every packet carries the same information useful for recognizing all levels of the protocol. For example, in a conversational flow associated with a particular application, the application will cause the server to send a type-A packet, but so will another. If, though, the particular application program always follows a type-A packet with the sending of a type-B packet, and the other application program does not, then in order to recognize packets of that application's conversational flow, the monitor can be available to recognize packets that match the type-B packet to associate with the type-A packet. If such is recognized after a type-A packet, then the particular application program's conversational flow has started to reveal itself to the monitor 108.

[0082] Further packets may need to be examined before the conversational flow can be identified as being associated with the application program. Typically, monitor 108 is simultaneously also in partial completion of identifying other packet exchanges that are parts of conversational flows associated with other applications. One aspect of monitor 108 is its ability to maintain the state of a flow. The state of a flow is an indication of all previous events in the flow that lead to recognition of the content of all the protocol levels, e.g., the ISO model protocol levels. Another aspect of the invention is forming a signature of extracted characteristic portions of the packet that can be used to rapidly identify packets belonging to the same flow.

[0083] In real-world uses of the monitor 108, the number of packets on the network 102 passing by the monitor 108's connection point can exceed a million per second. Consequently, the monitor has very little time available to analyze and type each packet and identify and maintain the state of the flows passing through the connection point. The monitor 108 therefore masks out all the unimportant parts of each packet that will not contribute to its classification. However, the parts to mask-out will change with each packet depending on which flow it belongs to and depending on the state of the flow.

[0084] The recognition of the packet type, and ultimately of the associated application programs according to the packets that their executions produce, is a multi-step process within the monitor 108. At a first level, for example, several application programs will all produce a first kind of packet. A first “signature” is produced from selected parts of a packet that will allow monitor 108 to identify efficiently any packets that belong to the same flow. In some cases, that packet type may be sufficiently unique to enable the monitor to identify the application that generated such a packet in the conversational flow. The signature can then be used to efficiently identify all future packets generated in traffic related to that application.

[0085] In other cases, that first packet only starts the process of analyzing the conversational flow, and more packets are necessary to identify the associated application program. In such a case, a subsequent packet of a second type—but that potentially belongs to the same conversational flow—is recognized by using the signature. At such a second level, then, only a few of those application programs will have conversational flows that can produce such a second packet type. At this level in the process of classification, all application programs that are not in the set of those that lead to such a sequence of packet types may be excluded in the process of classifying the conversational flow that includes these two packets. Based on the known patterns for the protocol and for the possible applications, a signature is produced that allows recognition of any future packets that may follow in the conversational flow.

[0086] It may be that the application is now recognized, or recognition may need to proceed to a third level of analysis using the second level signature. For each packet, therefore, the monitor parses the packet and generates a signature to determine if this signature identified a previously encountered flow, or shall be used to recognize future packets belonging to the same conversational flow. In real time, the packet is further analyzed in the context of the sequence of previously encountered packets (the state), and of the possible future sequences such a past sequence may generate in conversational flows associated with different applications. A new signature for recognizing future packets may also be generated. This process of analysis continues until the applications are identified. The last generated signature may then be used to efficiently recognize future packets associated with the same conversational flow. Such an arrangement makes it possible for the monitor 108 to cope with millions of packets per second that must be inspected.

[0087] Another aspect of the invention is adding Eavesdropping. In alternative embodiments of the present invention capable of eavesdropping, once the monitor 108 has recognized the executing application programs passing through some point in the network 102 (for example, because of execution of the applications by the client 105 or server 110), the monitor sends a message to some general purpose processor on the network that can input the same packets from the same location on the network, and the processor then loads its own executable copy of the application program and uses it to read the content being exchanged over the network. In other words, once the monitor 108 has accomplished recognition of the application program, eavesdropping can commence.

The Network Monitor

[0088] FIG. 3 shows a network packet monitor 300, in an embodiment of the present invention that can be implemented with computer hardware and/or software. The system 300 is similar to monitor 108 in FIG. 1. A packet 302 is examined, e.g., from a packet acquisition device at the location 121 in network 102 (FIG. 1), and the packet evaluated, for example in an attempt to determine its characteristics, e.g., all the protocol information in a multilevel model, including what server application produced the packet.

[0089] The packet acquisition device is a common interface that converts the physical signals and then decodes them into bits, and into packets, in accordance with the particular network (Ethernet, frame relay, ATM, etc.). The acquisition device indicates to the monitor 108 the type of network of the acquired packet or packets.

[0090] Aspects shown here include: (1) the initialization of the monitor to generate what operations need to occur on packets of different types—accomplished by compiler and optimizer 310, (2) the processing—parsing and extraction of selected portions—of packets to generate an identifying signature—accomplished by parser subsystem 301, and (3) the analysis of the packets—accomplished by analyzer 303.

[0091] The purpose of compiler and optimizer 310 is to provide protocol specific information to parser subsystem 301 and to analyzer subsystem 303. The initialization occurs prior to operation of the monitor, and only needs to re-occur when new protocols are to be added.

[0092] A flow is a stream of packets being exchanged between any two addresses in the network. For each protocol there are known to be several fields, such as the destination (recipient), the source (the sender), and so forth, and these and other fields are used in monitor 300 to identify the flow. There are other fields not important for identifying the flow, such as checksums, and those parts are not used for identification.

[0093] Parser subsystem 301 examines the packets using pattern recognition process 304 that parses the packet and determines the protocol types and associated headers for each protocol layer that exists in the packet 302. An extraction process 306 in parser subsystem 301 extracts characteristic portions (signature information) from the packet 302. Both the pattern information for parsing and the related extraction operations, e.g., extraction masks, are supplied from a parsing-pattern-structures and extraction-operations database (parsing/extractions database) 308 filled by the compiler and optimizer 310.

[0094] The protocol description language (PDL) files 336 describes both patterns and states of all protocols that an occur at any layer, including how to interpret header information, how to determine from the packet header information the protocols at the next layer, and what information to extract for the purpose of identifying a flow, and ultimately, applications and services. The layer selections database 338 describes the particular layering handled by the monitor. That is, what protocols run on top of what protocols at any layer level. Thus 336 and 338 combined describe how one would decode, analyze, and understand the information in packets, and, furthermore, how the information is layered. This information is input into compiler and optimizer 310.

[0095] When compiler and optimizer 310 executes, it generates two sets of internal data structures. The first is the set of parsing/extraction operations 308. The pattern structures include parsing information and describe what will be recognized in the headers of packets; the extraction operations are what elements of a packet are to be extracted from the packets based on the patterns that get matched. Thus, database 308 of parsing/extraction operations includes information describing how to determine a set of one or more protocol dependent extraction operations from data in the packet that indicate a protocol used in the packet.

[0096] The other internal data structure that is built by compiler 310 is the set of state patterns and processes 326. These are the different states and state transitions that occur in different conversational flows, and the state operations that need to be performed (e.g., patterns that need to be examined and new signatures that need to be built) during any state of a conversational flow to further the task of analyzing the conversational flow.

[0097] Thus, compiling the PDL files and layer selections provides monitor 300 with the information it needs to begin processing packets. In an alternate embodiment, the contents of one or more of databases 308 and 326 may be manually or otherwise generated. Note that in some embodiments the layering selections information is inherent rather than explicitly described. For example, since a PDL file for a protocol includes the child protocols, the parent protocols also may be determined.

[0098] In the preferred embodiment, the packet 302 from the acquisition device is input into a packet buffer. The pattern recognition process 304 is carried out by a pattern analysis and recognition (PAR) engine that analyzes and recognizes patterns in the packets. In particular, the PAR locates the next protocol field in the header and determines the length of the header, and may perform certain other tasks for certain types of protocol headers. An example of this is type and length comparison to distinguish an IEEE 802.3 (Ethernet) packet from the older type 2 (or Version 2) Ethernet packet, also called a DIGITAL-Intel-Xerox (DIX) packet. The PAR also uses the pattern structures and extraction operations database 308 to identify the next protocol and parameters associated with that protocol that enables analysis of the next protocol layer. Once a pattern or a set of patterns has been identified, it/they will be associated with a set of none or more extraction operations. These extraction operations (in the form of commands and associated parameters) are passed to the extraction process 306 implemented by an extracting and information identifying (EII) engine that extracts selected parts of the packet, including identifying information from the packet as required for recognizing this packet as part of a flow. The extracted information is put in sequence and then processed in block 312 to build a unique flow signature (also called a “key”) for this flow. A flow signature depends on the protocols used in the packet. For some protocols, the extracted components may include source and destination addresses. For example, Ethernet frames have end-point addresses that are useful in building a better flow signature. Thus, the signature typically includes the client and server address pairs. The signature is used to recognize further packets that are or may be part of this flow.

[0099] In the preferred embodiment, the building of the flow key includes generating a hash of the signature using a hash function. The purpose if using such a hash is conventional—to spread flow-entries identified by the signature across a database for efficient searching. The hash generated is preferably based on a hashing algorithm and such hash generation is known to those in the art.

[0100] In one embodiment, the parser passes data from the packet—a parser record—that includes the signature (i.e., selected portions of the packet), the hash, and the packet itself to allow for any state processing that requires further data from the packet. An improved embodiment of the parser subsystem might generate a parser record that has some predefined structure and that includes the signature, the hash, some flags related to some of the fields in the parser record, and parts of the packet's payload that the parser subsystem has determined might be required for further processing, e.g., for state processing.

[0101] Note that alternate embodiments may use some function other than concatenation of the selected portions of the packet to make the identifying signature. For example, some “digest function” of the concatenated selected portions may be used.

[0102] The parser record is passed onto lookup process 314 which looks in an internal data store of records of known flows that the system has already encountered, and decides (in 316) whether or not this particular packet belongs to a known flow as indicated by the presence of a flow-entry matching this flow in a database of known flows 324. A record in database 324 is associated with each encountered flow.

[0103] The parser record enters a buffer called the unified flow key buffer (UFKB). The UFKB stores the data on flows in a data structure that is similar to the parser record, but that includes a field that can be modified. In particular, one or the UFKB record fields stores the packet sequence number, and another is filled with state information in the form of a program counter for a state processor that implements state processing 328.

[0104] The determination (316) of whether a record with the same signature already exists is carried out by a lookup engine (LUE) that obtains new UFKB records and uses the hash in the UFKB record to lookup if there is a matching known flow. In the particular embodiment, the database of known flows 324 is in an external memory. A cache is associated with the database 324. A lookup by the LUE for a known record is carried out by accessing the cache using the hash, and if the entry is not already present in the cache, the entry is looked up (again using the hash) in the external memory.

[0105] The flow-entry database 324 stores flow-entries that include the unique flow-signature, state information, and extracted information from the packet for updating flows, and one or more statistical about the flow. Each entry completely describes a flow. Database 324 is organized into bins that contain a number, denoted N, of flow-entries (also called flow-entries, each a bucket), with N being 4 in the preferred embodiment. Buckets (i.e., flow-entries) are accessed via the hash of the packet from the parser subsystem 301 (i.e., the hash in the UFKB record). The hash spreads the flows across the database to allow for fast lookups of entries, allowing shallower buckets. The designer selects the bucket depth N based on the amount of memory attached to the monitor, and the number of bits of the hash data value used. For example, in one embodiment, each flow-entry is 128 bytes long, so for 128K flow-entries, 16 Mbytes are required. Using a 16-bit hash gives two flow-entries per bucket. Empirically, this has been shown to be more than adequate for the vast majority of cases. Note that another embodiment uses flow-entries that are 256 bytes long.

[0106] Herein, whenever an access to database 324 is described, it is to be understood that the access is via the cache, unless otherwise stated or clear from the context.

[0107] If there is no flow-entry found matching the signature, i.e., the signature is for a new flow, then a protocol and state identification process 318 further determines the state and protocol. That is, process 318 determines the protocols and where in the state sequence for a flow for this protocol's this packet belongs. Identification process 318 uses the extracted information and makes reference to the database 326 of state patterns and processes. Process 318 is then followed by any state operations that need to be executed on this packet by a state processor 328.

[0108] If the packet is found to have a matching flow-entry in the database 324 (e.g., in the cache), then a process 320 determines, from the looked-up flow-entry, if more classification by state processing of the flow signature is necessary. If not, a process 322 updates the flow-entry in the flow-entry database 324 (e.g., via the cache). Updating includes updating one or more statistical measures stored in the flow-entry. In our embodiment, the statistical measures are stored in counters in the flow-entry.

[0109] If state processing is required, state process 328 is commenced. State processor 328 carries out any state operations specified for the state of the flow and updates the state to the next state according to a set of state instructions obtained form the state pattern and processes database 326.

[0110] The state processor 328 analyzes both new and existing flows in order to analyze all levels of the protocol stack, ultimately classifying the flows by application (level 7 in the ISO model). It does this by proceeding from state-to-state based on predefined state transition rules and state operations as specified in state processor instruction database 326. A state transition rule is a rule typically containing a test followed by the next-state to proceed to if the test result is true. An operation is an operation to be performed while the state processor is in a particular state—for example, in order to evaluate a quantity needed to apply the state transition rule. The state processor goes through each rule and each state process until the test is true, or there are no more tests to perform.

[0111] In general, the set of state operations may be none or more operations on a packet, and carrying out the operation or operations may leave one in a state that causes exiting the system prior to completing the identification, but possibly knowing more about what state and state processes are needed to execute next, i.e., when a next packet of this flow is encountered. As an example, a state process (set of state operations) at a particular state may build a new signature for future recognition packets of the next state.

[0112] By maintaining the state of the flows and knowing that new flows may be set up using the information from previously encountered flows, the network traffic monitor 300 provides for (a) single-packet protocol recognition of flows, and (b) multiple-packet protocol recognition of flows. Monitor 300 can even recognize the application program from one or more disjointed sub-flows that occur in server announcement type flows. What may seem to prior art monitors to be some unassociated flow, may be recognized by the inventive monitor using the flow signature to be a sub-flow associated with a previously encountered sub-flow.

[0113] Thus, state processor 328 applies the first state operation to the packet for this particular flow-entry. A process 330 decides if more operations need to be performed for this state. If so, the analyzer continues looping between block 330 and 328 applying additional state operations to this particular packet until all those operations are completed—that is, there are no more operations for this packet in this state. A process 332 decides if there are further states to be analyzed for this type of flow according to the state of the flow and the protocol, in order to fully characterize the flow. If not, the conversational flow has now been fully characterized and a process 334 finalizes the classification of the conversational flow for the flow.

[0114] In the particular embodiment, the state processor 328 starts the state processing by using the last protocol recognized by the parser as an offset into a jump table (jump vector). The jump table finds the state processor instructions to use for that protocol in the state patterns and processes database 326. Most instructions test something in the unified flow key buffer, or the flow-entry in the database of known flows 324, if the entry exists. The state processor may have to test bits, do comparisons, add, or subtract to perform the test. For example, a common operation carried out by the state processor is searching for one or more patterns in the payload part of the UFKB.

[0115] Thus, in 332 in the classification, the analyzer decides whether the flow is at an end state. If not at an end state, the flow-entry is updated (or created if a new flow) for this flow-entry in process 322.

[0116] Furthermore, if the flow is known and if in 332 it is determined that there are further states to be processed using later packets, the flow-entry is updated in process 322.

[0117] The flow-entry also is updated after classification finalization so that any further packets belonging to this flow will be readily identified from their signature as belonging to this fully analyzed conversational flow.

[0118] After updating, database 324 therefore includes the set of all the conversational flows that have occurred.

[0119] Thus, the embodiment of present invention shown in FIG. 3 automatically maintains flow-entries, which in one aspect includes storing states. The monitor of FIG. 3 also generates characteristic parts of packets—the signatures—that can be used to recognize flows. The flow-entries may be identified and accessed by their signatures. Once a packet is identified to be from a known flow, the state of the flow is known and this knowledge enables state transition analysis to be performed in real time for each different protocol and application. In a complex analysis, state transitions are traversed as more and more packets are examined. Future packets that are part of the same conversational flow have their state analysis continued from a previously achieved state. When enough packets related to an application of interest have been processed, a final recognition state is ultimately reached, i.e., a set of states has been traversed by state analysis to completely characterize the conversational flow. The signature for that final state enables each new incoming packet of the same conversational flow to be individually recognized in real time.

[0120] In this manner, one of the great advantages of the present invention is realized. Once a particular set of state transitions has been traversed for the first time and ends in a final state, a short-cut recognition pattern—a signature—can be generated that will key on every new incoming packet that relates to the conversational flow. Checking a signature involves a simple operation, allowing high packet rates to be successfully monitored on the network.

[0121] In improved embodiments, several state analyzers are run in parallel so that a large number of protocols and applications may be checked for. Every known protocol and application will have at least one unique set of state transitions, and can therefore be uniquely identified by watching such transitions.

[0122] When each new conversational flow starts, signatures that recognize the flow are automatically generated on-the-fly, and as further packets in the conversational flow are encountered, signatures are updated and the states of the set of state transitions for any potential application are further traversed according to the state transition rules for the flow. The new states for the flow—those associated with a set of state transitions for one or more potential applications—are added to the records of previously encountered states for easy recognition and retrieval when a new packet in the flow is encountered.

Detailed Operation

[0123] FIG. 4 diagrams an initialization system 400 that includes the compilation process. That is, part of the initialization generates the pattern structures and extraction operations database 308 and the state instruction database 328. Such initialization can occur off-line or from a central location.

[0124] The different protocols that can exist in different layers may be thought of as nodes of one or more trees of linked nodes. The packet type is the root of a tree (called level 0). Each protocol is either a parent node or a terminal node. A parent node links a protocol to other protocols (child protocols) that can be at higher layer levels. Thus a protocol may have zero or more children. Ethernet packets, for example, have several variants, each having a basic format that remains substantially the same. An Ethernet packet (the root or level 0 node) may be an Ethertype packet-also called an Ethernet Type/Version 2 and a DIX (DIGITAL-Intel-Xerox packet)—or an IEEE 803.2 packet. Continuing with the IEEE 802.3 packet, one of the children nodes may be the IP protocol, and one of the children of the IP protocol may be the TCP protocol.

[0125] FIG. 16 shows the header 1600 (base level 1) of a complete Ethernet frame (i.e., packet) of information and includes information on the destination media access control address (Dst MAC 1602) and the source media access control address (Src MAC 1604). Also shown in FIG. 16 is some (but not all) of the information specified in the PDL files for extraction the signature.

[0126] FIG. 17A now shows the header information for the next level (level-2) for an Ethertype packet 1700. For an Ethertype packet 1700, the relevant information from the packet that indicates the next layer level is a two-byte type field 1702 containing the child recognition pattern for the next level. The remaining information 1704 is shown hatched because it not relevant for this level. The list 1712 shows the possible children for an Ethertype packet as indicated by what child recognition pattern is found offset 12. FIG. 17B shows the structure of the header of one of the possible next levels, that of the IP protocol. The possible children of the IP protocol are shown in table 1752.

[0127] The pattern, parse, and extraction database (pattern recognition database, or PRD) 308 generated by compilation process 310, in one embodiment, is in the form of a three dimensional structure that provides for rapidly searching packet headers for the next protocol. FIG. 18A shows such a 3-D representation 1800 (which may be considered as an indexed set of 2-D representations). A compressed form of the 3-D structure is preferred.

[0128] An alternate embodiment of the data structure used in database 308 is illustrated in FIG. 18B. Thus, like the 3-D structure of FIG. 18A, the data structure permits rapid searches to be performed by the pattern recognition process 304 by indexing locations in a memory rather than performing address link computations. In this alternate embodiment, the PRD 308 includes two parts, a single protocol table 1850 (PT) which has an entry for each protocol known for the monitor, and a series of Look Up Tables 1870 (LUT's) that are used to identify known protocols and their children. The protocol table includes the parameters needed by the pattern analysis and recognition process 304 (implemented by PRE 1006) to evaluate the header information in the packet that is associated with that protocol, and parameters needed by extraction process 306 (implemented by slicer 1007) to process the packet header. When there are children, the PT describes which bytes in the header to evaluate to determine the child protocol. In particular, each PT entry contains the header length, an offset to the child, a slicer command, and some flags.

[0129] The pattern matching is carried out by finding particular “child recognition codes” in the header fields, and using these codes to index one or more of the LUT's. Each LUT entry has a node code that can have one of four values, indicating the protocol that has been recognized, a code to indicate that the protocol has been partially recognized (more LUT lookups are needed), a code to indicate that this is a terminal node, and a null node to indicate a null entry. The next LUT to lookup is also returned from a LUT lookup.

[0130] Compilation process is described in FIG. 4. The source-code information in the form of protocol description files is shown as 402. In the particular embodiment, the high level decoding descriptions includes a set of protocol description files 336, one for each protocol, and a set of packet layer selections 338, which describes the particular layering (sets of trees of protocols) that the monitor is to be able to handle.

[0131] A compiler 403 compiles the descriptions. The set of packet parse-and-extract operations 406 is generated (404), and a set of packet state instructions and operations 407 is generated (405) in the form of instructions for the state processor that implements state processing process 328. Data files for each type of application and protocol to be recognized by the analyzer are downloaded from the pattern, parse, and extraction database 406 into the memory systems of the parser and extraction engines. (See the parsing process 500 description and FIG. 5; the extraction process 600 description and FIG. 6; and the parsing subsystem hardware description and FIG. 10). Data files for each type of application and protocol to be recognized by the analyzer are also downloaded from the state-processor instruction database 407 into the state processor. (see the state processor 1108 description and FIG. 11.).

[0132] Note that generating the packet parse and extraction operations builds and links the three dimensional structure (one embodiment) or the or all the lookup tables for the PRD.

[0133] Because of the large number of possible protocol trees and subtrees, the compiler process 400 includes optimization that compares the trees and subtrees to see which children share common parents. When implemented in the form of the LUT's, this process can generate a single LUT from a plurality of LUT's. The optimization process further includes a compaction process that reduces the space needed to store the data of the PRD.

[0134] As an example of compaction, consider the 3-D structure of FIG. 18A that can be thought of as a set of 2-D structures each representing a protocol. To enable saving space by using only one array per protocol which may have several parents, in one embodiment, the pattern analysis subprocess keeps a “current header” pointer. Each location (offset) index for each protocol 2-D array in the 3-D structure is a relative location starting with the start of header for the particular protocol. Furthermore, each of the two-dimensional arrays is sparse. The next step of the optimization, is checking all the 2-D arrays against all the other 2-D arrays to find out which ones can share memory. Many of these 2-D arrays are often sparsely populated in that they each have only a small number of valid entries. So, a process of “folding” is next used to combine two or more 2-D arrays together into one physical 2-D array without losing the identity of any of the original 2-D arrays (i.e., all the 2-D arrays continue to exist logically). Folding can occur between any 2-D arrays irrespective of their location in the tree as long as certain conditions are met. Multiple arrays may be combined into a single array as long as the individual entries do not conflict with each other. A fold number is then used to associate each element with its original array. A similar folding process is used for the set of LUTs 1850 in the alternate embodiment of FIG. 18B.

[0135] In 410, the analyzer has been initialized and is ready to perform recognition.

[0136] FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of how actual parser subsystem 301 functions. Starting at 501, the packet 302 is input to the packet buffer in step 502. Step 503 loads the next (initially the first) packet component from the packet 302. The packet components are extracted from each packet 302 one element at a time. A check is made (504) to determine if the load-packet-component operation 503 succeeded, indicating that there was more in the packet to process. If not, indicating all components have been loaded, the parser subsystem 301 builds the packet signature (512)—the next stage (FIG. 6).

[0137] If a component is successfully loaded in 503, the node and processes are fetched (505) from the pattern, parse and extraction database 308 to provide a set of patterns and processes for that node to apply to the loaded packet component. The parser subsystem 301 checks (506) to determine if the fetch pattern node operation 505 completed successfully, indicating there was a pattern node that loaded in 505. If not, step 511 moves to the next packet component. If yes, then the node and pattern matching process are applied in 507 to the component extracted in 503. A pattern match obtained in 507 (as indicated by test 508) means the parser subsystem 301 has found a node in the parsing elements; the parser subsystem 301 proceeds to step 509 to extract the elements.

[0138] If applying the node process to the component does not produce a match (test 508), the parser subsystem 301 moves (510) to the next pattern node from the pattern database 308 and to step 505 to fetch the next node and process. Thus, there is an “applying patterns” loop between 508 and 505. Once the parser subsystem 301 completes all the patterns and has either matched or not, the parser subsystem 301 moves to the next packet component (511).

[0139] Once all the packet components have been the loaded and processed from the input packet 302, then the load packet will fail (indicated by test 504), and the parser subsystem 301 moves to build a packet signature which is described in FIG. 6

[0140] FIG. 6 is a flow chart for extracting the information from which to build the packet signature. The flow starts at 601, which is the exit point 513 of FIG. 5. At this point parser subsystem 301 has a completed packet component and a pattern node available in a buffer (602). Step 603 loads the packet component available from the pattern analysis process of FIG. 5. If the load completed (test 604), indicating that there was indeed another packet component, the parser subsystem 301 fetches in 605 the extraction and process elements received from the pattern node component in 602. If the fetch was successful (test 606), indicating that there are extraction elements to apply, the parser subsystem 301 in step 607 applies that extraction process to the packet component based on an extraction instruction received from that pattern node. This removes and saves an element from the packet component.

[0141] In step 608, the parser subsystem 301 checks if there is more to extract from this component, and if not, the parser subsystem 301 moves back to 603 to load the next packet component at hand and repeats the process. If the answer is yes, then the parser subsystem 301 moves to the next packet component ratchet. That new packet component is then loaded in step 603. As the parser subsystem 301 moved through the loop between 608 and 603, extra extraction processes are applied either to the same packet component if there is more to extract, or to a different packet component if there is no more to extract.

[0142] The extraction process thus builds the signature, extracting more and more components according to the information in the patterns and extraction database 308 for the particular packet. Once loading the next packet component operation 603 fails (test 604), all the components have been extracted. The built signature is loaded into the signature buffer (610) and the parser subsystem 301 proceeds to FIG. 7 to complete the signature generation process.

[0143] Referring now to FIG. 7, the process continues at 701. The signature buffer and the pattern node elements are available (702). The parser subsystem 301 loads the next pattern node element. If the load was successful (test 704) indicating there are more nodes, the parser subsystem 301 in 705 hashes the signature buffer element based on the hash elements that are found in the pattern node that is in the element database. In 706 the resulting signature and the hash are packed. In 707 the parser subsystem 301 moves on to the next packet component which is loaded in 703.

[0144] The 703 to 707 loop continues until there are no more patterns of elements left (test 704). Once all the patterns of elements have been hashed, processes 304, 306 and 312 of parser subsystem 301 are complete. Parser subsystem 301 has generated the signature used by the analyzer subsystem 303.

[0145] A parser record is loaded into the analyzer, in particular, into the UFKB in the form of a UFKB record which is similar to a parser record, but with one or more different fields.

[0146] FIG. 8 is a flow diagram describing the operation of the lookup/update engine (LUE) that implements lookup operation 314. The process starts at 801 from FIG. 7 with the parser record that includes a signature, the hash and at least parts of the payload. In 802 those elements are shown in the form of a UFKB-entry in the buffer. The LUE, the lookup engine 314 computes a “record bin number” from the hash for a flow-entry. A bin herein may have one or more “buckets” each containing a flow-entry. The preferred embodiment has four buckets per bin.

[0147] Since preferred hardware embodiment includes the cache, all data accesses to records in the flowchart of FIG. 8 are stated as being to or from the cache.

[0148] Thus, in 804, the system looks up the cache for a bucket from that bin using the hash. If the cache successfully returns with a bucket from the bin number, indicating there are more buckets in the bin, the lookup/update engine compares (807) the current signature (the UFKB-entry's signature) from that in the bucket (i.e., the flow-entry signature). If the signatures match (test 808), that record (in the cache) is marked in step 810 as “in process” and a timestamp added. Step 811 indicates to the UFKB that the UFKB-entry in 802 has a status of “found.” The “found” indication allows the state processing 328 to begin processing this UFKB element. The preferred hardware embodiment includes one or more state processors, and these can operate in parallel with the lookup/update engine.

[0149] In the preferred embodiment, a set of statistical operations is performed by a calculator for every packet analyzed. The statistical operations may include one or more of counting the packets associated with the flow; determining statistics related to the size of packets of the flow; compiling statistics on differences between packets in each direction, for example using timestamps; and determining statistical relationships of timestamps of packets in the same direction. The statistical measures are kept in the flow-entries. Other statistical measures also may be compiled. These statistics may be used singly or in combination by a statistical processor component to analyze many different aspects of the flow. This may include determining network usage metrics from the statistical measures, for example to ascertain the network's ability to transfer information for this application. Such analysis provides for measuring the quality of service of a conversation, measuring how well an application is performing in the network, measuring network resources consumed by an application, and so forth.

[0150] To provide for such analyses, the lookup/update engine updates one or more counters that are part of the flow-entry (in the cache) in step 812. The process exits at 813. In our embodiment, the counters include the total packets of the flow, the time, and a differential time from the last timestamp to the present timestamp.

[0151] It may be that the bucket of the bin did not lead to a signature match (test 808). In such a case, the analyzer in 809 moves to the next bucket for this bin. Step 804 again looks up the cache for another bucket from that bin. The lookup/update engine thus continues lookup up buckets of the bin until there is either a match in 808 or operation 804 is not successful (test 805), indicating that there are no more buckets in the bin and no match was found.

[0152] If no match was found, the packet belongs to a new (not previously encountered) flow. In 806 the system indicates that the record in the unified flow key buffer for this packet is new, and in 812, any statistical updating operations are performed for this packet by updating the flow-entry in the cache. The update operation exits at 813. A flow insertion/deletion engine (FIDE) creates a new record for this flow (again via the cache).

[0153] Thus, the update/lookup engine ends with a UFKB-entry for the packet with a “new” status or a “found” status.

[0154] Note that the above system uses a hash to which more than one flow-entry can match. A longer hash may be used that corresponds to a single flow-entry. In such an embodiment, the flow chart of FIG. 8 is simplified as would be clear to those in the art.

The Hardware System

[0155] Each of the individual hardware elements through which the data flows in the system are now described with reference to FIGS. 10 and 11. Note that while we are describing a particular hardware implementation of the invention embodiment of FIG. 3, it would be clear to one skilled in the art that the flow of FIG. 3 may alternatively be implemented in software running on one or more general-purpose processors, or only partly implemented in hardware. An implementation of the invention that can operate in software is shown in FIG. 14. The hardware embodiment (FIGS. 10 and 11) can operate at over a million packets per second, while the software system of FIG. 14 may be suitable for slower networks. To one skilled in the art it would be clear that more and more of the system may be implemented in software as processors become faster.

[0156] FIG. 10 is a description of the parsing subsystem (301, shown here as subsystem 1000) as implemented in hardware. Memory 1001 is the pattern recognition database memory, in which the patterns that are going to be analyzed are stored. Memory 1002 is the extraction-operation database memory, in which the extraction instructions are stored. Both 1001 and 1002 correspond to internal data structure 308 of FIG. 3. Typically, the system is initialized from a microprocessor (not shown) at which time these memories are loaded through a host interface multiplexor and control register 1005 via the internal buses 1003 and 1004. Note that the contents of 1001 and 1002 are preferably obtained by compiling process 310 of FIG. 3.

[0157] A packet enters the parsing system via 1012 into a parser input buffer memory 1008 using control signals 1021 and 1023, which control an input buffer interface controller 1022. The buffer 1008 and interface control 1022 connect to a packet acquisition device (not shown). The buffer acquisition device generates a packet start signal 1021 and the interface control 1022 generates a next packet (i.e., ready to receive data) signal 1023 to control the data flow into parser input buffer memory 1008. Once a packet starts loading into the buffer memory 1008, pattern recognition engine (PRE) 1006 carries out the operations on the input buffer memory described in block 304 of FIG. 3. That is, protocol types and associated headers for each protocol layer that exist in the packet are determined.

[0158] The PRE searches database 1001 and the packet in buffer 1008 in order to recognize the protocols the packet contains. In one implementation, the database 1001 includes a series of linked lookup tables. Each lookup table uses eight bits of addressing. The first lookup table is always at address zero. The Pattern Recognition Engine uses a base packet offset from a control register to start the comparison. It loads this value into a current offset pointer (COP). It then reads the byte at base packet offset from the parser input buffer and uses it as an address into the first lookup table.

[0159] Each lookup table returns a word that links to another lookup table or it returns a terminal flag. If the lookup produces a recognition event the database also returns a command for the slicer. Finally it returns the value to add to the COP.

[0160] The PRE 1006 includes of a comparison engine. The comparison engine has a first stage that checks the protocol type field to determine if it is an 802.3 packet and the field should be treated as a length. If it is not a length, the protocol is checked in a second stage. The first stage is the only protocol level that is not programmable. The second stage has two full sixteen bit content addressable memories (CAMs) defined for future protocol additions.

[0161] Thus, whenever the PRE recognizes a pattern, it also generates a command for the extraction engine (also called a “slicer”) 1007. The recognized patterns and the commands are sent to the extraction engine 1007 that extracts information from the packet to build the parser record. Thus, the operations of the extraction engine are those carried out in blocks 306 and 312 of FIG. 3. The commands are sent from PRE 1006 to slicer 1007 in the form of extraction instruction pointers which tell the extraction engine 1007 where to a find the instructions in the extraction operations database memory (i.e., slicer instruction database) 1002.

[0162] Thus, when the PRE 1006 recognizes a protocol it outputs both the protocol identifier and a process code to the extractor. The protocol identifier is added to the flow signature and the process code is used to fetch the first instruction from the instruction database 1002. Instructions include an operation code and usually source and destination offsets as well as a length. The offsets and length are in bytes. A typical operation is the MOVE instruction. This instruction tells the slicer 1007 to copy n bytes of data unmodified from the input buffer 1008 to the output buffer 1010. The extractor contains a byte-wise barrel shifter so that the bytes moved can be packed into the flow signature. The extractor contains another instruction called HASH. This instruction tells the extractor to copy from the input buffer 1008 to the HASH generator.

[0163] Thus these instructions are for extracting selected element(s) of the packet in the input buffer memory and transferring the data to a parser output buffer memory 1010. Some instructions also generate a hash.

[0164] The extraction engine 1007 and the PRE operate as a pipeline. That is, extraction engine 1007 performs extraction operations on data in input buffer 1008 already processed by PRE 1006 while more (i.e., later arriving) packet information is being simultaneously parsed by PRE 1006. This provides high processing speed sufficient to accommodate the high arrival rate speed of packets.

[0165] Once all the selected parts of the packet used to form the signature are extracted, the hash is loaded into parser output buffer memory 1010. Any additional payload from the packet that is required for further analysis is also included. The parser output memory 1010 is interfaced with the analyzer subsystem by analyzer interface control 1011. Once all the information of a packet is in the parser output buffer memory 1010, a data ready signal 1025 is asserted by analyzer interface control. The data from the parser subsystem 1000 is moved to the analyzer subsystem via 1013 when an analyzer ready signal 1027 is asserted.

[0166] FIG. 11 shows the hardware components and dataflow for the analyzer subsystem that performs the functions of the analyzer subsystem 303 of FIG. 3. The analyzer is initialized prior to operation, and initialization includes loading the state processing information generated by the compilation process 310 into a database memory for the state processing, called state processor instruction database (SPID) memory 1109.

[0167] The analyzer subsystem 1100 includes a host bus interface 1122 using an analyzer host interface controller 1118, which in turn has access to a cache system 1115. The cache system has bidirectional access to and from the state processor of the system 1108. State processor 1108 is responsible for initializing the state processor instruction database memory 1109 from information given over the host bus interface 1122.

[0168] With the SPID 1109 loaded, the analyzer subsystem 1100 receives parser records comprising packet signatures and payloads that come from the parser into the unified flow key buffer (UFKB) 1103. UFKB is comprised of memory set up to maintain UFKB records. A UFKB record is essentially a parser record; the UFKB holds records of packets that are to be processed or that are in process. Furthermore, the UFKB provides for one or more fields to act as modifiable status flags to allow different processes to run concurrently.

[0169] Three processing engines run concurrently and access records in the UFKB 1103: the lookup/update engine (LUE) 1107, the state processor (SP) 1108, and the flow insertion and deletion engine (FIDE) 1110. Each of these is implemented by one or more finite state machines (FSM's). There is bidirectional access between each of the finite state machines and the unified flow key buffer 1103. The UFKB record includes a field that stores the packet sequence number, and another that is filled with state information in the form of a program counter for the state processor 1108 that implements state processing 328. The status flags of the UFKB for any entry includes that the LUE is done and that the LUE is transferring processing of the entry to the state processor. The LUE done indicator is also used to indicate what the next entry is for the LUE. There also is provided a flag to indicate that the state processor is done with the current flow and to indicate what the next entry is for the state processor. There also is provided a flag to indicate the state processor is transferring processing of the UFKB-entry to the flow insertion and deletion engine.

[0170] A new UFKB record is first processed by the LUE 1107. A record that has been processed by the LUE 1107 may be processed by the state processor 1108, and a UFKB record data may be processed by the flow insertion/deletion engine 1110 after being processed by the state processor 1108 or only by the LUE. Whether or not a particular engine has been applied to any unified flow key buffer entry is determined by status fields set by the engines upon completion. In one embodiment, a status flag in the UFKB-entry indicates whether an entry is new or found. In other embodiments, the LUE issues a flag to pass the entry to the state processor for processing, and the required operations for a new record are included in the SP instructions.

[0171] Note that each UFKB-entry may not need to be processed by all three engines. Furthermore, some UFKB entries may need to be processed more than once by a particular engine.

[0172] Each of these three engines also has bi-directional access to a cache subsystem 1115 that includes a caching engine. Cache 1115 is designed to have information flowing in and out of it from five different points within the system: the three engines, external memory via a unified memory controller (UMC) 1119 and a memory interface 1123, and a microprocessor via analyzer host interface and control unit (ACIC) 1118 and host interface bus (HIB) 1122. The analyzer microprocessor (or dedicated logic processor) can thus directly insert or modify data in the cache.

[0173] The cache subsystem 1115 is an associative cache that includes a set of content addressable memory cells (CAMs) each including an address portion and a pointer portion pointing to the cache memory (e.g., RAM) containing the cached flow-entries. The CAMs are arranged as a stack ordered from a top CAM to a bottom CAM. The bottom CAM's pointer points to the least recently used (LRU) cache memory entry. Whenever there is a cache miss, the contents of cache memory pointed to by the bottom CAM are replaced by the flow-entry from the flow-entry database 324. This now becomes the most recently used entry, so the contents of the bottom CAM are moved to the top CAM and all CAM contents are shifted down. Thus, the cache is an associative cache with a true LRU replacement policy.

[0174] The LUE 1107 first processes a UFKB-entry, and basically performs the operation of blocks 314 and 316 in FIG. 3. A signal is provided to the LUE to indicate that a “new” UFKB-entry is available. The LUE uses the hash in the UFKB-entry to read a matching bin of up to four buckets from the cache. The cache system attempts to obtain the matching bin. If a matching bin is not in the cache, the cache 1115 makes the request to the UMC 1119 to bring in a matching bin from the external memory.

[0175] When a flow-entry is found using the hash, the LUE 1107 looks at each bucket and compares it using the signature to the signature of the UFKB-entry until there is a match or there are no more buckets.

[0176] If there is no match, or if the cache failed to provide a bin of flow-entries from the cache, a time stamp in set in the flow key of the UFKB record, a protocol identification and state determination is made using a table that was loaded by compilation process 310 during initialization, the status for the record is set to indicate the LUE has processed the record, and an indication is made that the UFKB-entry is ready to start state processing. The identification and state determination generates a protocol identifier which in the preferred embodiment is a “jump vector” for the state processor which is kept by the UFKB for this UFKB-entry and used by the state processor to start state processing for the particular protocol. For example, the jump vector jumps to the subroutine for processing the state.

[0177] If there was a match, indicating that the packet of the UFKB-entry is for a previously encountered flow, then a calculator component enters one or more statistical measures stored in the flow-entry, including the timestamp. In addition, a time difference from the last stored timestamp may be stored, and a packet count may be updated. The state of the flow is obtained from the flow-entry is examined by looking at the protocol identifier stored in the flow-entry of database 324. If that value indicates that no more classification is required, then the status for the record is set to indicate the LUE has processed the record. In the preferred embodiment, the protocol identifier is a jump vector for the state processor to a subroutine to state processing the protocol, and no more classification is indicated in the preferred embodiment by the jump vector being zero. If the protocol identifier indicates more processing, then an indication is made that the UFKB-entry is ready to start state processing and the status for the record is set to indicate the LUE has processed the record.

[0178] The state processor 1108 processes information in the cache system according to a UFKB-entry after the LUE has completed. State processor 1108 includes a state processor program counter SPPC that generates the address in the state processor instruction database 1109 loaded by compiler process 310 during initialization. It contains an Instruction Pointer (SPIP) which generates the SPID address. The instruction pointer can be incremented or loaded from a Jump Vector Multiplexor which facilitates conditional branching. The SPIP can be loaded from one of three sources: (1) A protocol identifier from the UFKB, (2) an immediate jump vector form the currently decoded instruction, or (3) a value provided by the arithmetic logic unit (SPALU) included in the state processor.

[0179] Thus, after a Flow Key is placed in the UFKB by the LUE with a known protocol identifier, the Program Counter is initialized with the last protocol recognized by the Parser. This first instruction is a jump to the subroutine which analyzes the protocol that was decoded.

[0180] The State Processor ALU (SPALU) contains all the Arithmetic, Logical and String Compare functions necessary to implement the State Processor instructions. The main blocks of the SPALU are: The A and B Registers, the Instruction Decode & State Machines, the String Reference Memory the Search Engine, an Output Data Register and an Output Control Register

[0181] The Search Engine in turn contains the Target Search Register set, the Reference Search Register set, and a Compare block which compares two operands by exclusive-or-ing them together.

[0182] Thus, after the UFKB sets the program counter, a sequence of one or more state operations are be executed in state processor 1108 to further analyze the packet that is in the flow key buffer entry for this particular packet.

[0183] FIG. 13 describes the operation of the state processor 1108. The state processor is entered at 1301 with a unified flow key buffer entry to be processed. The UFKB-entry is new or corresponding to a found flow-entry. This UFKB-entry is retrieved from unified flow key buffer 1103 in 1301. In 1303, the protocol identifier for the UFKB-entry is used to set the state processor's instruction counter. The state processor 1108 starts the process by using the last protocol recognized by the parser subsystem 301 as an offset into a jump table. The jump table takes us to the instructions to use for that protocol. Most instructions test something in the unified flow key buffer or the flow-entry if it exists. The state processor 1108 may have to test bits, do comparisons, add or subtract to perform the test.

[0184] The first state processor instruction is fetched in 1304 from the state processor instruction database memory 1109. The state processor performs the one or more fetched operations (1304). In our implementation, each single state processor instruction is very primitive (e.g., a move, a compare, etc.), so that many such instructions need to be performed on each unified flow key buffer entry. One aspect of the state processor is its ability to search for one or more (up to four) reference strings in the payload part of the UFKB entry. This is implemented by a search engine component of the state processor responsive to special searching instructions.

[0185] In 1307, a check is made to determine if there are any more instructions to be performed for the packet. If yes, then in 1308 the system sets the state processor instruction pointer (SPIP) to obtain the next instruction. The SPIP may be set by an immediate jump vector in the currently decoded instruction, or by a value provided by the SPALU during processing.

[0186] The next instruction to be performed is now fetched (1304) for execution. This state processing loop between 1304 and 1307 continues until there are no more instructions to be performed.

[0187] At this stage, a check is made in 1309 if the processing on this particular packet has resulted in a final state. That is, is the analyzer is done processing not only for this particular packet, but for the whole flow to which the packet belongs, and the flow is fully determined. If indeed there are no more states to process for this flow, then in 1311 the processor finalizes the processing. Some final states may need to put a state in place that tells the system to remove a flow—for example, if a connection disappears from a lower level connection identifier. In that case, in 1311, a flow removal state is set and saved in the flow-entry. The flow removal state may be a NOP (no-op) instruction which means there are no removal instructions.

[0188] Once the appropriate flow removal instruction as specified for this flow (a NOP or otherwise) is set and saved, the process is exited at 1313. The state processor 1108 can now obtain another unified flow key buffer entry to process.

[0189] If at 1309 it is determined that processing for this flow is not completed, then in 1310 the system saves the state processor instruction pointer in the current flow-entry in the current flow-entry. That will be the next operation that will be performed the next time the LRE 1107 finds packet in the UFKB that matches this flow. The processor now exits processing this particular unified flow key buffer entry at 1313.

[0190] Note that state processing updates information in the unified flow key buffer 1103 and the flow-entry in the cache. Once the state processor is done, a flag is set in the UFKB for the entry that the state processor is done. Furthermore, If the flow needs to be inserted or deleted from the database of flows, control is then passed on to the flow insertion/deletion engine 1110 for that flow signature and packet entry. This is done by the state processor setting another flag in the UFKB for this UFKB-entry indicating that the state processor is passing processing of this entry to the flow insertion and deletion engine.

[0191] The flow insertion and deletion engine 1110 is responsible for maintaining the flow-entry database. In particular, for creating new flows in the flow database, and deleting flows from the database so that they can be reused.

[0192] The process of flow insertion is now described with the aid of FIG. 12. Flows are grouped into bins of buckets by the hash value. The engine processes a UFKB-entry that may be new or that the state processor otherwise has indicated needs to be created. FIG. 12 shows the case of a new entry being created. A conversation record bin (preferably containing 4 buckets for four records) is obtained in 1203. This is a bin that matches the hash of the UFKB, so this bin may already have been sought for the UFKB-entry by the LUE. In 1204 the FIDE 1110 requests that the record bin/bucket be maintained in the cache system 1115. If in 1205 the cache system 1115 indicates that the bin/bucket is empty, step 1207 inserts the flow signature (with the hash) into the bucket and the bucket is marked “used” in the cache engine of cache 1115 using a timestamp that is maintained throughout the process. In 1209, the FIDE 1110 compares the bin and bucket record flow signature to the packet to verify that all the elements are in place to complete the record. In 1211 the system marks the record bin and bucket as “in process” and as “new” in the cache system (and hence in the external memory). In 1212, the initial statistical measures for the flow-record are set in the cache system. This in the preferred embodiment clears the set of counters used to maintain statistics, and may perform other procedures for statistical operations requires by the analyzer for the first packet seen for a particular flow.

[0193] Back in step 1205, if the bucket is not empty, the FIDE 1110 requests the next bucket for this particular bin in the cache system. If this succeeds, the processes of 1207, 1209, 1211 and 1212 are repeated for this next bucket. If at 1208, there is no valid bucket, the unified flow key buffer entry for the packet is set as “drop,” indicating that the system cannot process the particular packet because there are no buckets left in the system. The process exits at 1213. The FIDE 1110 indicates to the UFKB that the flow insertion and deletion operations are completed for this UFKB-entry. This also lets the UFKB provide the FIDE with the next UFKB record.

[0194] Once a set of operations is performed on a unified flow key buffer entry by all of the engines required to access and manage a particular packet and its flow signature, the unified flow key buffer entry is marked as “completed.” That element will then be used by the parser interface for the next packet and flow signature coming in from the parsing and extracting system.

[0195] All flow-entries are maintained in the external memory and some are maintained in the cache 1115. The cache system 1115 is intelligent enough to access the flow database and to understand the data structures that exists on the other side of memory interface 1123. The lookup/update engine 1107 is able to request that the cache system pull a particular flow or “buckets” of flows from the unified memory controller 1119 into the cache system for further processing. The state processor 1108 can operate on information found in the cache system once it is looked up by means of the lookup/update engine request, and the flow insertion/deletion engine 1110 can create new entries in the cache system if required based on information in the unified flow key buffer 1103. The cache retrieves information as required from the memory through the memory interface 1123 and the unified memory controller 1119, and updates information as required in the memory through the memory controller 1119.

[0196] There are several interfaces to components of the system external to the module of FIG. 11 for the particular hardware implementation. These include host bus interface 1122, which is designed as a generic interface that can operate with any kind of external processing system such as a microprocessor or a multiplexor (MUX) system. Consequently, one can connect the overall traffic classification system of FIGS. 11 and 12 into some other processing system to manage the classification system and to extract data gathered by the system.

[0197] The memory interface 1123 is designed to interface to any of a variety of memory systems that one may want to use to store the flow-entries. One can use different types of memory systems like regular dynamic random access memory (DRAM), synchronous DRAM, synchronous graphic memory (SGRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), and so forth.

[0198] FIG. 10 also includes some “generic” interfaces. There is a packet input interface 1012—a general interface that works in tandem with the signals of the input buffer interface control 1022. These are designed so that they can be used with any kind of generic systems that can then feed packet information into the parser. Another generic interface is the interface of pipes 1031 and 1033 respectively out of and into host interface multiplexor and control registers 1005. This enables the parsing system to be managed by an external system, for example a microprocessor or another kind of external logic, and enables the external system to program and otherwise control the parser.

[0199] The preferred embodiment of this aspect of the invention is described in a hardware description language (HDL) such as VHDL or Verilog. It is designed and created in an HDL so that it may be used as a single chip system or, for instance, integrated into another general-purpose system that is being designed for purposes related to creating and analyzing traffic within a network. Verilog or other HDL implementation is only one method of describing the hardware.

[0200] In accordance with one hardware implementation, the elements shown in FIGS. 10 and 11 are implemented in a set of six field programmable logic arrays (FPGA's). The boundaries of these FPGA's are as follows. The parsing subsystem of FIG. 10 is implemented as two FPGAS; one FPGA, and includes blocks 1006, 1008 and 1012, parts of 1005, and memory 1001. The second FPGA includes 1002, 1007, 1013, 1011 parts of 1005. Referring to FIG. 11, the unified look-up buffer 1103 is implemented as a single FPGA. State processor 1108 and part of state processor instruction database memory 1109 is another FPGA. Portions of the state processor instruction database memory 1109 are maintained in external SRAM's. The lookup/update engine 1107 and the flow insertion/deletion engine 1110 are in another FPGA. The sixth FPGA includes the cache system 1115, the unified memory control 1119, and the analyzer host interface and control 1118.

[0201] Note that one can implement the system as one or more VSLI devices, rather than as a set of application specific integrated circuits (ASIC's) such as FPGA's. It is anticipated that in the future device densities will continue to increase, so that the complete system may eventually form a sub-unit (a “core”) of a larger single chip unit.

Operation of the Invention

[0202] FIG. 15 shows how an embodiment of the network monitor 300 might be used to analyze traffic in a network 102. Packet acquisition device 1502 acquires all the packets from a connection point 121 on network 102 so that all packets passing point 121 in either direction are supplied to monitor 300. Monitor 300 comprises the parser sub-system 301, which determines flow signatures, and analyzer sub-system 303 that analyzes the flow signature of each packet. A memory 324 is used to store the database of flows that are determined and updated by monitor 300. A host computer 1504, which might be any processor, for example, a general-purpose computer, is used to analyze the flows in memory 324. As is conventional, host computer 1504 includes a memory, say RAM, shown as host memory 1506. In addition, the host might contain a disk. In one application, the system can operate as an RMON probe, in which case the host computer is coupled to a network interface card 1510 that is connected to the network 102.

[0203] The preferred embodiment of the invention is supported by an optional Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) implementation. FIG. 15 describes how one would, for example, implement an RMON probe, where a network interface card is used to send RMON information to the network. Commercial SNMP implementations also are available, and using such an implementation can simplify the process of porting the preferred embodiment of the invention to any platform.

[0204] In addition, MIB Compilers are available. An MIB Compiler is a tool that greatly simplifies the creation and maintenance of proprietary MIB extensions.

Examples of Packet Elucidation

[0205] Monitor 300, and in particular, analyzer 303 is capable of carrying out state analysis for packet exchanges that are commonly referred to as “server announcement” type exchanges. Server announcement is a process used to ease communications between a server with multiple applications that can all be simultaneously accessed from multiple clients. Many applications use a server announcement process as a means of multiplexing a single port or socket into many applications and services. With this type of exchange, messages are sent on the network, in either a broadcast or multicast approach, to announce a server and application, and all stations in the network may receive and decode these messages. The messages enable the stations to derive the appropriate connection point for communicating that particular application with the particular server. Using the server announcement method, a particular application communicates using a service channel, in the form of a TCP or UDP socket or port as in the IP protocol suite, or using a SAP as in the Novell IPX protocol suite.

[0206] The analyzer 303 is also capable of carrying out “in-stream analysis” of packet exchanges. The “in-stream analysis” method is used either as a primary or secondary recognition process. As a primary process, in-stream analysis assists in extracting detailed information which will be used to further recognize both the specific application and application component. A good example of in-stream analysis is any Web-based application. For example, the commonly used PointCast Web information application can be recognized using this process; during the initial connection between a PointCast server and client, specific key tokens exist in the data exchange that will result in a signature being generated to recognize PointCast.

[0207] The in-stream analysis process may also be combined with the server announcement process. In many cases in-stream analysis will augment other recognition processes. An example of combining in-stream analysis with server announcement can be found in business applications such as SAP and BAAN.

[0208] “Session tracking” also is known as one of the primary processes for tracking applications in client/server packet exchanges. The process of tracking sessions requires an initial connection to a predefined socket or port number. This method of communication is used in a variety of transport layer protocols. It is most commonly seen in the TCP and UDP transport protocols of the IP protocol.

[0209] During the session tracking, a client makes a request to a server using a specific port or socket number. This initial request will cause the server to create a TCP or UDP port to exchange the remainder of the data between the client and the server. The server then replies to the request of the client using this newly created port. The original port used by the client to connect to the server will never be used again during this data exchange.

[0210] One example of session tracking is TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol), a version of the TCP/IP FTP protocol that has no directory or password capability. During the client/server exchange process of TFTP, a specific port (port number 69) is always used to initiate the packet exchange. Thus, when the client begins the process of communicating, a request is made to UDP port 69. Once the server receives this request, a new port number is created on the server. The server then replies to the client using the new port. In this example, it is clear that in order to recognize TFTP; network monitor 300 analyzes the initial request from the client and generates a signature for it. Monitor 300 uses that signature to recognize the reply. Monitor 300 also analyzes the reply from the server with the key port information, and uses this to create a signature for monitoring the remaining packets of this data exchange.

[0211] Network monitor 300 can also understand the current state of particular connections in the network. Connection-oriented exchanges often benefit from state tracking to correctly identify the application. An example is the common TCP transport protocol that provides a reliable means of sending information between a client and a server. When a data exchange is initiated, a TCP request for synchronization message is sent. This message contains a specific sequence number that is used to track an acknowledgement from the server. Once the server has acknowledged the synchronization request, data may be exchanged between the client and the server. When communication is no longer required, the client sends a finish or complete message to the server, and the server acknowledges this finish request with a reply containing the sequence numbers from the request. The states of such a connection-oriented exchange relate to the various types of connection and maintenance messages.

Server Announcement Example

[0212] The individual methods of server announcement protocols vary. However, the basic underlying process remains similar. A typical server announcement message is sent to one or more clients in a network. This type of announcement message has specific content, which, in another aspect of the invention, is salvaged and maintained in the database of flow-entries in the system. Because the announcement is sent to one or more stations, the client involved in a future packet exchange with the server will make an assumption that the information announced is known, and an aspect of the inventive monitor is that it too can make the same assumption.

[0213] Sun-RPC is the implementation by Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Palo Alto, Calif.) of the Remote Procedure Call (RPC), a programming interface that allows one program to use the services of another on a remote machine. A Sun-RPC example is now used to explain how monitor 300 can capture server announcements.

[0214] A remote program or client that wishes to use a server or procedure must establish a connection, for which the RPC protocol can be used.

[0215] Each server running the Sun-RPC protocol must maintain a process and database called the port Mapper. The port Mapper creates a direct association between a Sun-RPC program or application and a TCP or UDP socket or port (for TCP or UDP implementations). An application or program number is a 32-bit unique identifier assigned by ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, www.icann.org), which manages the huge number of parameters associated with Internet protocols (port numbers, router protocols, multicast addresses, etc.) Each port Mapper on a Sun-RPC server can present the mappings between a unique program number and a specific transport socket through the use of specific request or a directed announcement. According to ICANN, port number 111 is associated with Sun RPC.

[0216] As an example, consider a client (e.g., CLIENT 3 shown as 106 in FIG. 1) making a specific request to the server (e.g., SERVER 2 of FIG. 1, shown as 10) on a predefined UDP or TCP socket. Once the port Mapper process on the sun RPC server receives the request, the specific mapping is returned in a directed reply to the client.

[0217] 1. A client (CLIENT 3, 106 in FIG. 1) sends a TCP packet to SERVER 2 (110 in FIG. 1) on port 111, with an RPC Bind Lookup Request (rpcBindLookup). TCP or UDP port 111 is always associated Sun RPC. This request specifies the program (as a program identifier), version, and might specify the protocol (UDP or TCP).

[0218] 2. The server SERVER 2 (110 in FIG. 1) extracts the program identifier and version identifier from the request. The server also uses the fact that this packet came in using the TCP transport and that no protocol was specified, and thus will use the TCP protocol for its reply.

[0219] 3. The server 110 sends a TCP packet to port number 111, with an RPC Bind Lookup Reply. The reply contains the specific port number (e.g., port number ‘port’) on which future transactions will be accepted for the specific RPC program identifier (e.g., Program ‘program’) and the protocol (UDP or TCP) for use.

[0220] It is desired that from now on every time that port number ‘port’ is used, the packet is associated with the application program ‘program’ until the number ‘port’ no longer is to be associated with the program ‘program’. Network monitor 300 by creating a flow-entry and a signature includes a mechanism for remembering the exchange so that future packets that use the port number ‘port’ will be associated by the network monitor with the application program ‘program’.

[0221] In addition to the Sun RPC Bind Lookup request and reply, there are other ways that a particular program—say ‘program’—might be associated with a particular port number, for example number ‘port’. One is by a broadcast announcement of a particular association between an application service and a port number, called a Sun RPC portMapper Announcement. Another, is when some server—say the same SERVER 2—replies to some client—say CLIENT 1—requesting some portMapper assignment with a RPC portMapper Reply. Some other client—say CLIENT 2—might inadvertently see this request, and thus know that for this particular server, SERVER 2, port number ‘port’ is associated with the application service ‘program’. It is desirable for the network monitor 300 to be able to associate any packets to SERVER 2 using port number ‘port’ with the application program ‘program’.

[0222] FIG. 9 represents a dataflow 900 of some operations in the monitor 300 of FIG. 3 for Sun Remote Procedure Call. Suppose a client 106 (e.g., CLIENT 3 in FIG. 1) is communicating via its interface to the network 118 to a server 110 (e.g., SERVER 2 in FIG. 1) via the server's interface to the network 116. Further assume that Remote Procedure Call is used to communicate with the server 110. One path in the data flow 900 starts with a step 910 that a Remote Procedure Call bind lookup request is issued by client 106 and ends with the server state creation step 904. Such RPC bind lookup request includes values for the ‘program,’ ‘version,’ and ‘protocol’ to use, e.g., TCP or UDP. The process for Sun RPC analysis in the network monitor 300 includes the following aspects.:

[0223] Process 909: Extract the ‘program,’ ‘version,’ and ‘protocol’ (UDP or TCP). Extract the TCP or UDP port (process 909) which is 111 indicating Sun RPC.

[0224] Process 908: Decode the Sun RPC packet. Check RPC type field for ID. If value is portMapper, save paired socket (i.e., dest for destination address, src for source address). Decode ports and mapping, save ports with socket/addr key. There may be more than one pairing per mapper packet. Form a signature (e.g., a key). A flow-entry is created in database 324. The saving of the request is now complete.

[0225] At some later time, the server (process 907) issues a RPC bind lookup reply. The packet monitor 300 will extract a signature from the packet and recognize it from the previously stored flow. The monitor will get the protocol port number (906) and lookup the request (905). A new signature (i.e., a key) will be created and the creation of the server state (904) will be stored as an entry identified by the new signature in the flow-entry database. That signature now may be used to identify packets associated with the server.

[0226] The server state creation step 904 can be reached not only from a Bind Lookup Request/Reply pair, but also from a RPC Reply portMapper packet shown as 901 or an RPC Announcement portMapper shown as 902. The Remote Procedure Call protocol can announce that it is able to provide a particular application service. Embodiments of the present invention preferably can analyze when an exchange occurs between a client and a server, and also can track those stations that have received the announcement of a service in the network.

[0227] The RPC Announcement portMapper announcement 902 is a broadcast. Such causes various clients to execute a similar set of operations, for example, saving the information obtained from the announcement. The RPC Reply portMapper step 901 could be in reply to a portMapper request, and is also broadcast. It includes all the service parameters.

[0228] Thus monitor 300 creates and saves all such states for later classification of flows that relate to the particular service ‘program’.

[0229] FIG. 2 shows how the monitor 300 in the example of Sun RPC builds a signature and flow states. A plurality of packets 206-209 are exchanged, e.g., in an exemplary Sun Microsystems Remote Procedure Call protocol. A method embodiment of the present invention might generate a pair of flow signatures, “signature-1” 210 and “signature—2” 212, from information found in the packets 206 and 207 which, in the example, correspond to a Sun RPC Bind Lookup request and reply, respectively.

[0230] Consider first the Sun RPC Bind Lookup request. Suppose packet 206 corresponds to such a request sent from CLIENT 3 to SERVER 2. This packet contains important information that is used in building a signature according to an aspect of the invention. A source and destination network address occupy the first two fields of each packet, and according to the patterns in pattern database 308, the flow signature (shown as KEY1230 in FIG. 2) will also contain these two fields, so the parser subsystem 301 will include these two fields in signature KEY 1 (230). Note that in FIG. 2, if an address identifies the client 106 (shown also as 202), the label used in the drawing is “C1”. If such address identifies the server 110 (shown also as server 204), the label used in the drawing is “S1”. The first two fields 214 and 215 in packet 206 are “S1” and C1” because packet 206 is provided from the server 110 and is destined for the client 106. Suppose for this example, “S1” is an address numerically less than address “C1”. A third field “p1216 identifies the particular protocol being used, e.g., TCP, UDP, etc.

[0231] In packet 206, a fourth field 217 and a fifth field 218 are used to communicate port numbers that are used. The conversation direction determines where the port number field is. The diagonal pattern in field 217 is used to identify a source-port pattern, and the hash pattern in field 218 is used to identify the destination-port pattern. The order indicates the client-server message direction. A sixth field denoted “i1” 219 is an element that is being requested by the client from the server. A seventh field denoted “s1a” 220 is the service requested by the client from server 110. The following eighth field “QA” 221 (for question mark) indicates that the client 106 wants to know what to use to access application “s1a”. A tenth field “QP” 223 is used to indicate that the client wants the server to indicate what protocol to use for the particular application.

[0232] Packet 206 initiates the sequence of packet exchanges, e.g., a RPC Bind Lookup Request to SERVER 2. It follows a well-defined format, as do all the packets, and is transmitted to the server 110 on a well-known service connection identifier (port 111 indicating Sun RPC).

[0233] Packet 207 is the first sent in reply to the client 106 from the server. It is the RPC Bind Lookup Reply as a result of the request packet 206.

[0234] Packet 207 includes ten fields 224-233. The destination and source addresses are carried in fields 224 and 225, e.g., indicated “C1” and “S1”, respectively. Notice the order is now reversed, since the client-server message direction is from the server 110 to the client 106. The protocol “p1” is used as indicated in field 226. The request “i1” is in field 229. Values have been filled in for the application port number, e.g., in field 233 and protocol ““p2”” in field 233.

[0235] The flow signature and flow states built up as a result of this exchange are now described. When the packet monitor 300 sees the request packet 206 from the client, a first flow signature 210 is built in the parser subsystem 301 according to the pattern and extraction operations database 308. This signature 210 includes a destination and a source address 240 and 241. One aspect of the invention is that the flow keys are built consistently in a particular order no matter what the direction of conversation. Several mechanisms may be used to achieve this. In the particular embodiment, the numerically lower address is always placed before the numerically higher address. Such least to highest order is used to get the best spread of signatures and hashes for the lookup operations. In this case, therefore, since we assume “S1”<“C1”, the order is address “S1” followed by client address “C1”. The next field used to build the signature is a protocol field 242 extracted from packet 206's field 216, and thus is the protocol “p1”. The next field used for the signature is field 243, which contains the destination source port number shown as a crosshatched pattern from the field 218 of the packet 206. This pattern will be recognized in the payload of packets to derive how this packet or sequence of packets exists as a flow. In practice, these may be TCP port numbers, or a combination of TCP port numbers. In the case of the Sun RPC example, the crosshatch represents a set of port numbers of UDS for p1 that will be used to recognize this flow (e.g., port 111). Port 111 indicates this is Sun RPC. Some applications, such as the Sun RPC Bind Lookups, are directly determinable (“known”) at the parser level. So in this case, the signature KEY-1 points to a known application denoted “a1” (Sun RPC Bind Lookup), and a next-state that the state processor should proceed to for more complex recognition jobs, denoted as state “stD” is placed in the field 245 of the flow-entry.

[0236] When the Sun RPC Bind Lookup reply is acquired, a flow signature is again built by the parser. This flow signature is identical to KEY-1. Hence, when the signature enters the analyzer subsystem 303 from the parser subsystem 301, the complete flow-entry is obtained, and in this flow-entry indicates state “stD”. The operations for state “stD” in the state processor instruction database 326 instructs the state processor to build and store a new flow signature, shown as KEY-2 (212) in FIG. 2. This flow signature built by the state processor also includes the destination and a source addresses 250 and 251, respectively, for server “S1” followed by (the numerically higher address) client “C1”. A protocol field 252 defines the protocol to be used, e.g., “p2” which is obtained from the reply packet. A field 253 contains a recognition pattern also obtained from the reply packet. In this case, the application is Sun RPC, and field 254 indicates this application “a2”. A next-state field 255 defines the next state that the state processor should proceed to for more complex recognition jobs, e.g., a state “st1”. In this particular example, this is a final state. Thus, KEY-2 may now be used to recognize packets that are in any way associated with the application “a2”. Two such packets 208 and 209 are shown, one in each direction. They use the particular application service requested in the original Bind Lookup Request, and each will be recognized because the signature KEY-2 will be built in each case.

[0237] The two flow signatures 210 and 212 always order the destination and source address fields with server “S1” followed by client “C1”. Such values are automatically filled in when the addresses are first created in a particular flow signature. Preferably, large collections of flow signatures are kept in a lookup table in a least-to-highest order for the best spread of flow signatures and hashes.

[0238] Thereafter, the client and server exchange a number of packets, e.g., represented by request packet 208 and response packet 209. The client 106 sends packets 208 that have a destination and source address S1 and C1, in a pair of fields 260 and 261. A field 262 defines the protocol as “p2”, and a field 263 defines the destination port number.

[0239] Some network-server application recognition jobs are so simple that only a single state transition has to occur to be able to pinpoint the application that produced the packet. Others require a sequence of state transitions to occur in order to match a known and predefined climb from state-to-state.

[0240] Thus the flow signature for the recognition of application “a2” is automatically set up by predefining what packet-exchange sequences occur for this example when a relatively simple Sun Microsystems Remote Procedure Call bind lookup request instruction executes. More complicated exchanges than this may generate more than two flow signatures and their corresponding states. Each recognition may involve setting up a complex state transition diagram to be traversed before a “final” resting state such as “st1” in field 255 is reached. All these are used to build the final set of flow signatures for recognizing a particular application in the future.

[0241] Embodiments of the present invention automatically generate flow signatures with the necessary recognition patterns and state transition climb procedure. Such comes from analyzing packets according to parsing rules, and also generating state transitions to search for. Applications and protocols, at any level, are recognized through state analysis of sequences of packets.

[0242] Note that one in the art will understand that computer networks are used to connect many different types of devices, including network appliances such as telephones, “Internet” radios, pagers, and so forth. The term computer as used herein encompasses all such devices and a computer network as used herein includes networks of such computers.

[0243] Although the present invention has been described in terms of the presently preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the disclosure is not to be interpreted as limiting. Various alterations and modifications will no doubt become apparent to those or ordinary skill in the art after having read the above disclosure. Accordingly, it is intended that the claims be interpreted as covering all alterations and modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A packet monitor for examining packets passing through a connection point on a computer network in real-time, the packets provided to the packet monitor via a packet acquisition device connected to the connection point, the packet monitor comprising: (a) a packet-buffer memory configured to accept a packet from the packet acquisition device; (b) a parsing/extraction operations memory configured to store a database of parsing/extraction operations that includes information describing how to determine at least one of the protocols used in a packet from data in the packet; (c) a parser subsystem coupled to the packet buffer and to the pattern/extraction operations memory, the parser subsystem configured to examine the packet accepted by the buffer, extract selected portions of the accepted packet, and form a function of the selected portions sufficient to identify that the accepted packet is part of a conversational flow-sequence; (d) a memory storing a flow-entry database including a plurality of flow-entries for conversational flows encountered by the monitor; (e) a lookup engine connected to the parser subsystem and to the flow-entry database, and configured to determine using at least some of the selected portions of the accepted packet if there is an entry in the flow-entry database for the conversational flow sequence of the accepted packet; (f) a state patterns/operations memory configured to store a set of predefined state transition patterns and state operations such that traversing a particular transition pattern as a result of a particular conversational flow-sequence of packets indicates that the particular conversational flow-sequence is associated with the operation of a particular application program, visiting each state in a traversal including carrying out none or more predefined state operations; (g) a protocol/state identification mechanism coupled to the state patterns/operations memory and to the lookup engine, the protocol/state identification engine configured to determine the protocol and state of the conversational flow of the packet; and (h) a state processor coupled to the flow-entry database, the protocol/state identification engine, and to the state patterns/operations memory, the state processor, configured to carry out any state operations specified in the state patterns/operations memory for the protocol and state of the flow of the packet, the carrying out of the state operations furthering the process of identifying which application program is associated with the conversational flow-sequence of the packet, the state processor progressing through a series of states and state operations until there are no more state operations to perform for the accepted packet, in which case the state processor updates the flow-entry, or until a final state is reached that indicates that no more analysis of the flow is required, in which case the result of the analysis is announced.

2. A packet monitor according to claim 1, wherein the flow-entry includes the state of the flow, such that the protocol/state identification mechanism determines the state of the packet from the flow-entry in the case that the lookup engine finds a flow-entry for the flow of the accepted packet.

3. A packet monitor according to claim 1, wherein the parser subsystem includes a mechanism for building a hash from the selected portions, and wherein the hash is used by the lookup engine to search the flow-entry database, the hash designed to spread the flow-entries across the flow-entry database.

4. A packet monitor according to claim 1, further comprising: a compiler processor coupled to the parsing/extraction operations memory, the compiler processor configured to run a compilation process that includes: receiving commands in a high-level protocol description language that describe the protocols that may be used in packets encountered by the monitor, and translating the protocol description language commands into a plurality of parsing/extraction operations that are initialized into the parsing/extraction operations memory.

5. A packet monitor according to claim 4, wherein the protocol description language commands also describe a correspondence between a set of one or more application programs and the state transition patterns/operations that occur as a result of particular conversational flow-sequences associated with an application program, wherein the compiler processor is also coupled to the state patterns/operations memory, and wherein the compilation process further includes translating the protocol description language commands into a plurality of state patterns and state operations that are initialized into the state patterns/operations memory.

6. A packet monitor according to claim 1, further comprising: a cache memory coupled to and between the lookup engine and the flow-entry database providing for fast access of a set of likely-to-be-accessed flow-entries from the flow-entry database.

7. A packet monitor according to claim 6, wherein the cache functions as a fully associative, least-recently-used cache memory.

8. A packet monitor according to claim 7, wherein the cache functions as a fully associative, least-recently-used cache memory and includes content addressable memories configured as a stack.

9. A packet monitor according to claim 1, wherein one or more statistical measures about a flow are stored in each flow-entry, the packet monitor further comprising: a calculator for updating the statistical measures in a flow-entry of the accepted packet.

10. A packet monitor according to claim 9, wherein, when the application program of a flow is determined, one or more network usage metrics related to said application and determined from the statistical measures are presented to a user for network performance monitoring.

11. A method of examining packets passing through a connection point on a computer network, each packets conforming to one or more protocols, the method comprising: (a) receiving a packet from a packet acquisition device; (b) performing one or more parsing/extraction operations on the packet to create a parser record comprising a function of selected portions of the packet; (c) looking up a flow-entry database comprising none or more flow-entries for previously encountered conversational flows, the looking up using at least some of the selected packet portions and determining if the packet is of an existing flow; (d) if the packet is of an existing flow, classifying the packet as belonging to the found existing flow; and (e) if the packet is of a new flow, storing a new flow-entry for the new flow in the flow-entry database, including identifying information for future packets to be identified with the new flow-entry, wherein the parsing/extraction operations depend on one or more of the protocols to which the packet conforms.

12. A method according to claim 11, wherein each packet passing through the connection point is examined in real time.

13. A method according to claim 11, wherein classifying the packet as belonging to the found existing flow includes updating the flow-entry of the existing flow.

14. A method according to claim 13, wherein updating includes storing one or more statistical measures stored in the flow-entry of the existing flow.

15. A method according to claim 14, wherein the one or more statistical measures include measures selected from the set consisting of the total packet count for the flow, the time, and a differential time from the last entered time to the present time.

16. A method according to claim 11, wherein the function of the selected portions of the packet forms a signature that includes the selected packet portions and that can identify future packers, wherein the lookup operation uses the signature and wherein the identifying information stored in the new or updated flow-entry is a signature for identifying future packets.

17. A method according to claim 11, wherein at least one of the protocols of the packet uses source and destination addresses, and wherein the selected portions of the packet include the source and destination addresses.

18. A method according to claim 17, wherein the function of the selected portions for packets of the same flow is consistent independent of the direction of the packets.

19. A method according to claim 18, wherein the source and destination addresses are placed in an order determined by the order of numerical values of the addresses in the function of selected portions.

20. A method according to claim 19, wherein the numerically lower address is placed before the numerically higher address in the function of selected portions.

21. A method according to claim 11, wherein the looking up of the flow-entry database uses a hash of the selected packet portions.

22. A method according to claim 11, wherein the parsing/extraction operations are according to a database of parsing/extraction operations that includes information describing how to determine a set of one or more protocol dependent extraction operations from data in the packet that indicate a protocol used in the packet.

23. A method according to claim 11, wherein step (d) includes if the packet is of an existing flow, obtaining the last encountered state of the flow and performing any state operations specified for the state of the flow starting from the last encountered state of the flow; and wherein step (e) includes if the packet is of a new flow, performing any state operations required for the initial state of the new flow.

24. A method according to claim 23, wherein the state processing of each received packet of a flow furthers the identifying of the application program of the flow.

25. A method according to claim 23, wherein the state operations include updating the flow-entry, including storing identifying information for future packets to be identified with the flow-entry.

26. A method according to claim 25, wherein the state processing of each received packet of a flow furthers the identifying of the application program of the flow.

27. A method according to claim 23, wherein the state operations include searching the parser record for the existence of one or more reference strings.

28. A method according to claim 23, wherein the state operations are carried out by a programmable state processor according to a database of protocol dependent state operations.

29. A packet monitor for examining packets passing through a connection point on a computer network, each packets conforming to one or more protocols, the monitor comprising: (a) a packet acquisition device coupled to the connection point and configured to receive packets passing through the connection point; (b) an input buffer memory coupled to and configured to accept a packet from the packet acquisition device; (c) a parser subsystem coupled to the input buffer memory and including a slicer, the parsing subsystem configured to extract selected portions of the accepted packet and to output a parser record containing the selected portions; (d) a memory for storing a database comprising none or more flow-entries for previously encountered conversational flows, each flow-entry identified by identifying information stored in the flow-entry; (e) a lookup engine coupled to the output of the parser subsystem and to the flow-entry memory and configured to lookup whether the particular packet whose parser record is output by the parser subsystem has a matching flow-entry, the looking up using at least some of the selected packet portions and determining if the packet is of an existing flow; and (f) a flow insertion engine coupled to the flow-entry memory and to the lookup engine and configured to create a flow-entry in the flow-entry database, the flow-entry including identifying information for future packets to be identified with the new flow-entry, the lookup engine configured such that if the packet is of an existing flow, the monitor classifies the packet as belonging to the found existing flow; and if the packet is of a new flow, the flow insertion engine stores a new flow-entry for the new flow in the flow-entry database, including identifying information for future packets to be identified with the new flow-entry, wherein the operation of the parser subsystem depends on one or more of the protocols to which the packet conforms.

30. A monitor according to claim 29, wherein each packet passing through the connection point is accepted by the packet buffer memory and examined by the monitor in real time.

31. A monitor according to claim 29, wherein the lookup engine updates the flow-entry of an existing flow in the case that the lookup is successful.

32. A monitor according to claim 29, further including a mechanism for building a hash from the selected portions, wherein the hash is included in the input for a particular packet to the lookup engine, and wherein the hash is used by the lookup engine to search the flow-entry database.

33. A monitor according to claim 29, further including a memory containing a database of parsing/extraction operations, the parsing/extraction database memory coupled to the parser subsystem, wherein the parsing/extraction operations are according to one or more parsing/extraction operations looked up from the parsing/extraction database.

34. A monitor according to claim 33, wherein the database of parsing/extraction operations includes information describing how to determine a set of one or more protocol dependent extraction operations from data in the packet that indicate a protocol used in the packet.

35. A monitor according to claim 29, further including a flow-key-buffer (UFKB) coupled to the output of the parser subsystem and to the lookup engine and to the flow insertion engine, wherein the output of the parser monitor is coupled to the lookup engine via the UFKB, and wherein the flow insertion engine is coupled to the lookup engine via the UFKB.

36. A method according to claim 29, further including a state processor coupled to the lookup engine and to the flow-entry-database memory, and configured to perform any state operations specified for the state of the flow starting from the last encountered state of the flow in the case that the packet is from an existing flow, and to perform any state operations required for the initial state of the new flow in the case that the packet is from an existing flow.

37. A method according to claim 29, wherein the set of possible state operations that the state processor is configured to perform includes searching for one or more patterns in the packet portions.

38. A monitor according to claim 36, wherein the state processor is programmable, the monitor further including a state patterns/operations memory coupled to the state processor, the state operations memory configured to store a database of protocol dependent state patterns/operations.

39. A monitor according to claim 35, further including a state processor coupled to the UFKB and to the flow-entry-database memory, and configured to perform any state operations specified for the state of the flow starting from the last encountered state of the flow in the case that the packet is from an existing flow, and to perform any state operations required for the initial state of the new flow in the case that the packet is from an existing flow.

40. A monitor according to claim 36, wherein the state operations include updating the flow-entry, including identifying information for future packets to be identified with the flow-entry.

41. A packet monitor according to claim 29, further comprising: a compiler processor coupled to the parsing/extraction operations memory, the compiler processor configured to run a compilation process that includes: receiving commands in a high-level protocol description language that describe the protocols that may be used in packets encountered by the monitor and any children protocols thereof, and translating the protocol description language commands into a plurality of parsing/extraction operations that are initialized into the parsing/extraction operations memory.

42. A packet monitor according to claim 38, further comprising: a compiler processor coupled to the parsing/extraction operations memory, the compiler processor configured to run a compilation process that includes: receiving commands in a high-level protocol description language that describe a correspondence between a set of one or more application programs and the state transition patterns/operations that occur as a result of particular conversational flow-sequences associated with an application programs, and translating the protocol description language commands into a plurality of state patterns and state operations that are initialized into the state patterns/operations memory.

43. A packet monitor according to claim 29, further comprising: a cache subsystem coupled to and between the lookup engine and the flow-entry database memory providing for fast access of a set of likely-to-be-accessed flow-entries from the flow-entry database.

44. A packet monitor according to claim 43, wherein the cache subsystem is an associative cache subsystem including one or more content addressable memory cells (CAMs).

45. A packet monitor according to claim 44, wherein the cache subsystem is also a least-recently-used cache memory such that a cache miss updates the least recently used cache entry.

46. A packet monitor according to claim 29, wherein each flow-entry stores one or more statistical measures about the flow, the monitor further comprising a calculator for updating at least one of the statistical measures in the flow-entry of the accepted packet.

47. A packet monitor according to claim 46, wherein the one or more statistical measures include measures selected from the set consisting of the total packet count for the flow, the time, and a differential time from the last entered time to the present time.

48. A packet monitor according to claim 46, further including a statistical processor configured to determine one or more network usage metrics related to the flow from one or more of the statistical measures in a flow-entry.

49. A monitor according to claim 29, wherein: flow-entry-database is organized into a plurality of bins that each contain N-number of flow-entries, and wherein said bins are accessed via a hash data value created by a parser subsystem based on the selected packet portions, wherein N is one or more.

50. A monitor according to claim 49, wherein the hash data value is used to spread a plurality of flow-entries across the flow-entry-database and allows fast lookup of a flow-entry and shallower buckets.

51. A monitor according to claim 36, wherein the state processor analyzes both new and existing flows in order to classify them by application and proceeds from state-to-state based on a set of predefined rules.

52. A monitor according to claim 29, wherein the lookup engine begins processing as soon as a parser record arrives from the parser subsystem.

53. A monitor according to claim 36, wherein the lookup engine provides for flow state entry checking to see if a flow key should be sent to the state processor, and that outputs a protocol identifier for the flow.

54. A method of examining packets passing through a connection point on a computer network, the method comprising: (a) receiving a packet from a packet acquisition device; (b) performing one or more parsing/extraction operations on the packet according to a database of parsing/extraction operations to create a parser record comprising a function of selected portions of the packet, the database of parsing/extraction operations including information on how to determine a set of one or more protocol dependent extraction operations from data in the packet that indicate a protocol is used in the packet; (c) looking up a flow-entry database comprising none or more flow-entries for previously encountered conversational flows, the looking up using at least some of the selected packet portions, and determining if the packet is of an existing flow; (d) if the packet is of an existing flow, obtaining the last encountered state of the flow and performing any state operations specified for the state of the flow starting from the last encountered state of the flow; and (e) if the packet is of a new flow, performing any analysis required for the initial state of the new flow and storing a new flow-entry for the new flow in the flow-entry database, including identifying information for future packets to be identified with the new flow-entry.

55. A method according to claim 54, wherein one of the state operations specified for at least one of the states includes updating the flow-entry, including identifying information for future packets to be identified with the flow-entry.

56. A method according to claim 54, wherein one of the state operations specified for at least one of the states includes searching the contents of the packet for at least one reference string.

57. A method according to claim 55, wherein one of the state operations specified for at least one of the states includes creating a new flow-entry for future packets to be identified with the flow, the new flow-entry including identifying information for future packets to be identified with the flow-entry.

58. A method according to claim 54, further comprising forming a signature from the selected packet portions, wherein the lookup operation uses the signature and wherein the identifying information stored in the new or updated flow-entry is a signature for identifying future packets.

59. A method according to claim 54, wherein the state operations are according to a database of protocol dependent state operations.