Patent ID: 9473456
Filing Date: 2016-10-18
CPC Classification: H04L

Claim Text:
1. A method for operating a network service provider, comprising: receiving a first portion of a traffic flow from a router in a plurality of routers in a network, wherein the traffic flow satisfies a first condition; inspecting the first portion of the traffic flow at a first level of detail; determining, based on the inspecting, that the traffic flow satisfies a second condition; when the traffic flow is determined to satisfy the second condition: receiving a second portion of the traffic flow, wherein the second portion of the traffic flow comprises a larger amount of information than the first portion of the traffic flow; and inspecting the second portion of the traffic flow at a second level of detail, wherein the inspecting at the second level of detail requires a different amount of computing resources than the inspecting at the first level of detail, wherein the inspecting the first portion of the traffic flow at a first level of detail comprises inspecting the header information of the packets belonging to the traffic flow, and the inspecting the second portion of the traffic flow at a second level of detail comprises inspecting the header and payload information of the packets describing the traffic flow.