Patent ID: 7650634
Filing Date: 2010-01-19
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method for inspecting data packets associated with a flow in a computer network, the computer network including two or more security devices for processing the data packets, each data packet having associated header data, the method comprising: receiving the data packet; examining the data packet; determining a single flow record associated with the data packet, where the determining includes: extracting flow instructions, a session ID and flow information, for the two or more security devices, from the single flow record and forwarding the flow instructions, the session ID and the flow information to the respective ones of the two or more security devices to facilitate processing of the data packet; receiving, from each of the two or more security devices, evaluation information, the evaluation information being generated by a respective one of the two or more security devices when processing the data packet; and processing the data packet using the evaluation information.