Patent ID: 8756337

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: (A) dequeueing a first packet from a first packet inspection queue; (B) applying load balancing to a first network packet flow to produce a plurality of network packet flows, wherein a first one of the plurality of network packet flows includes the first packet; (C) providing the plurality of network packet flows to a plurality of deep packet inspection engines, comprising providing the first one of the plurality of network packet flows to a first one of the plurality of deep packet inspection engines; (D) queuing packets, including the first packet, in the first one of the plurality of network packet flows onto a packet inspection queue associated with the first one of the plurality of deep packet inspection engines; (E) applying deep packet inspection to the first packet; and (F) if deep packet inspection of the first packet is not completed within a predetermined maximum amount of time, then: (1) suspending deep packet inspection of the first packet.