Patent ID: 11870754
Assignee: BRITISH TELECOMMUNICATIONS PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANY
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 0:
1. A method of operating a telecommunications network, in which deep packet inspection is performed on one or more packets, the method comprising:
at a receiving router:
packets are received from a source external to the telecommunications network,
one or more of the packets are identified as requiring deep packet inspection,
indicating data is added to the identified packets,
each packet is forwarded through the telecommunications network to a downstream router, with packets not requiring deep packet inspection being routed with a higher priority than packets requiring deep packet inspection, and
one or more copies are made of each packet carrying indicating data;

at a downstream router:
for packets that do not have indicating data identifying the packet as requiring deep packet inspection, the downstream router forwards the packets to addresses specified in a packet header, and
for packets having indicating data identifying the packet as requiring deep packet inspection, the downstream router stores the packets;

at one or more deep packet inspection devices located within the telecommunications network:
the copies are analyzed, and
the one or more deep packet inspection devices transmit policy updates to the downstream router in response to results of the analysis, the policy updates carrying instructions on handling packets carrying the indicating data; and

at the downstream router:
in response to the policy update reports received from the one or more deep packet inspection devices in respect of the indicating data, the downstream router determines whether stored packets carrying the indicating data are to be forwarded to a destination external to the telecommunications network.