Patent ID: 8250016

Claim:
A machine-implemented method for identifying multiple instances of a symbol pattern in a data packet being transmitted over a communication network, the method comprising: (a) the machine segmenting the data packet into variable-size blocks of symbols using variable stride segmentation to yield a plurality of data-packet segments having two or more different lengths, wherein the data packet is delimited into the plurality of data-packet segments by (i) applying a hash function to different k-grams of symbols within the data packet to generate hash values associated with the different k-grams and (ii) delimiting each data-packet segment based on one or more of the hash values; and (b) the machine comparing each of the plurality of data-packet segments with a pattern segment of the symbol pattern using deterministic finite automaton (DFA) processing to identify the multiple instances of the symbol pattern in the data packet with no false positives and no false negatives, wherein the pattern segment has fewer symbols than the symbol pattern.