Patent ID: 9577906
Date: 2017-02-21
CPC Classifications: H04L

Claim:
1. A method comprising: intercepting, at an intermediary network device, one or more packets traveling between a source device and a destination device; identifying, at the intermediary network device, a traffic flow based on the one or more packets; randomly determining based on a flow sample rate, at the intermediary network device, whether to: (a) inspect all packets intercepted from the traffic flow to collect one or more metrics, or (b) inspect none of the packets intercepted from the traffic flow to collect the one or more metrics; wherein the flow sample rate is dependent on one or more performance factors of the intermediary network device; wherein the one or more performance factors include one or more of: utilization of one or more processors of the intermediary network device or memory utilization of the intermediary network device; in response to a determination to inspect all packets intercepted from the traffic flow to collect the one or more metrics, the intermediary network inspecting all subsequently intercepted packets belonging to the traffic flow to collect the one or more metrics; wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.