Patent ID: 8179895
Filing Date: 2012-05-15
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method for monitoring tunneled Internet protocol (IP) traffic in a communications network, the method comprising: at a network tap located between general packet radio service (GPRS) nodes: (a) generating a copy of a tunneled IP packet stream that includes a plurality of IP packets traversing an IP communications network, each IP packet in the tunneled IP packet stream including an outer packet header including non-tunneled protocol address information, an outer packet payload carrying a tunneled packet having tunneled protocol address information, wherein the tunneled packets are not uniquely identifiable based on their non-tunneled protocol address information; (b) reading the tunneled protocol address information; and (c) segregating, using an amount of the tunneled protocol address information sufficient to identify an IP packet, the tunneled IP packet stream into a plurality of substreams by truncating the copied IP packets and distributing the plurality of substreams including the truncated IP packets to one or more processors for providing at least one of packet classification and network monitoring service for the truncated IP packets, wherein truncating the copied IP packets includes removing at least one of application layer information, presentation layer information, and session layer information from the tunneled IP packets.