A method comprising: at a computing platform comprising at least one processor , memory , and communication interface : receiving , via the communication interface, a plurality of Internet Protocol, IP, packets, wherein each packet of the plurality of packets comprises an IP packet header and an application packet, wherein each IP packet header comprises a plurality of IP packet header field values, and wherein each application packet comprises a plurality of application header field values within an application header; determining , by the processor, that at least a portion of the plurality of IP packets have IP packet header field values corresponding to a packet filtering rule stored in the memory; responsive to the determining that the at least a portion of the plurality of IP packets have IP packet header field values corresponding to the packet filtering rule stored in the memory, forwarding the at least a portion of the plurality of IP packets to an operator specified by the packet filtering rule, wherein the operator specifies one or more application header field value criteria; determining , by the operator, that one or more of the at least a portion of the plurality of IP packets have one or more application header field values corresponding to the one or more application header field value criteria specified by the operator; and responsive to the determining that the one or more of the at least a portion of the plurality of IP packets have one or more application header field values corresponding to the one or more application header field criteria specified by the operator, applying , by the operator, at least one packet transformation function specified by the operator to the one or more of the at least a portion of the plurality of IP packets. at a computing platform comprising at least one processor , memory , and communication interface : receiving , via the communication interface, a plurality of Internet Protocol, IP, packets, wherein each packet of the plurality of packets comprises an IP packet header and an application packet, wherein each IP packet header comprises a plurality of IP packet header field values, and wherein each application packet comprises a plurality of application header field values within an application header; determining , by the processor, that at least a portion of the plurality of IP packets have IP packet header field values corresponding to a packet filtering rule stored in the memory; responsive to the determining that the at least a portion of the plurality of IP packets have IP packet header field values corresponding to the packet filtering rule stored in the memory, forwarding the at least a portion of the plurality of IP packets to an operator specified by the packet filtering rule, wherein the operator specifies one or more application header field value criteria; determining , by the operator, that one or more of the at least a portion of the plurality of IP packets have one or more application header field values corresponding to the one or more application header field value criteria specified by the operator; and responsive to the determining that the one or more of the at least a portion of the plurality of IP packets have one or more application header field values corresponding to the one or more application header field criteria specified by the operator, applying , by the operator, at least one packet transformation function specified by the operator to the one or more of the at least a portion of the plurality of IP packets. <EOS>