Patent ID: 7124440

Claim:
A data collector to sample packet traffic, accumulate, and collect statistical information about network flows comprises: a computing device that executes a computer program product stored on a computer readable medium comprising instructions to cause the computing device to: collect statistical information pertaining to network packets received by the data collector; monitor a parameter of traffic flow at multiple levels of granularity to trace the source of an attack, with instructions to monitor further comprising instructions to: divide the traffic flow into buckets that track counts of how many packets the data collector examines for a given parameter; and adjust the number of buckets as the number of buckets approaches a bucket threshold, by combining several buckets into fewer buckets or dividing a bucket into more buckets; maintain the statistical information in a log; and wherein the data collector further comprises: a port to link the data collector over a redundant network that does not carry the packet traffic to deliver collected statistical information about the network packets to a central control center upon demand by the central control center.