Patent ID: 7836443

Claim:
A network apparatus, comprising, at least one network processor module having at least one processor, at least one interface to receive and forward a stream of data packets in a network, and instructions to cause the at least one processor to recognize one or more data packets in the stream of data packets that contain data, including subscriber profile information, for processing by an application executing on the network apparatus by applying a policy to the data, and directing the stream of data packets to at least one flow processor module for executing the application based on the subscriber profile information and the policy; the at least one flow processor module having at least one processor and at least one memory for storing the application for execution by the at least one flow processor module processor, the at least one flow processor module including instructions to receive the stream of data packets from the at least one network processor module, to process the data in the one or more data packets thereby providing one or more data packets with processed data, and to return the one or more data packets with processed data to the at least one network processor module for forwarding to a destination in the network; and at least one control processor module in communication with the at least one flow processor module and the at least one network processor module, and having at least one control processor module processor, and instructions for causing the at least one control processor module processor to manage the applications in the flow processor module memories.