Patent ID: 8380847
Filing Date: 2013-02-19
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method of operating a communication network, comprising: determining whether a network element can be trusted, wherein determining whether a network element can be trusted comprises: monitoring traffic associated with the network element based on whether the network element can be trusted; wherein monitoring traffic comprises: monitoring the traffic using rules to determine if the traffic contains unexpected information based on a degree of trust for the network element; and providing results with respect to whether the traffic contains unexpected information to a human expert interface based on the degree of trust for the network element; wherein monitoring traffic further comprises: selecting the traffic for monitoring using rules that are based on network element trust information; selecting at least some of the traffic that was monitored for examination based on a degree of trust for the network element; examining the at least some of the traffic that was monitored and was selected using rules using a level of examination selected from a plurality of levels of examination to determine if the traffic contains unexpected information based on the degree of trust for the network element; and providing results with respect to whether the at least some of the traffic that was monitored and was selected using rules contains unexpected information to a human expert interface based on the degree of trust for the network element; wherein the level of examination of the at least some of the traffic that was monitored is based on the degree of trust for the network element.