Patent ID: 6529508
Filing Date: 2003-03-04
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A method for classifying data packets, the method comprising:(a) providing a plurality of classification rules, each rule providing matching criteria for one or more parameters; (b) obtaining a signature comprising a plurality of parameter values for a data packet; (c) for each of a plurality of the parameter values obtaining an answer set comprising a first group of flags, one of the first group of flags in each answer set corresponding to each of the rules, each answer set divided into a plurality of blocks; (d) for each of one or more answer sets, obtaining an answer index comprising a second group of flags, one of the second group of flags corresponding to each block in the corresponding answer set, each flag of the second group of flags set to TRUE if any flag in the corresponding block is TRUE; and, (e) performing a logical AND operation on corresponding answer indexes to identify second flags which are set to TRUE in all of the answer indexes; and, (f) performing a logical AND operation on those blocks from all of the answer sets for which the corresponding second flags are set to TRUE in all of the answer indexes.