Patent ID: 8477648

Claim:
A method comprising: continuously sampling, at a frequency corresponding to a first time period, a traffic flow of captured data packets received via an ingress port of a network captured traffic distribution device communicatively coupled to a network; analyzing, by the network captured traffic distribution device, the sample; determining, by the network captured traffic distribution device, whether the ingress port is active during the first time period based upon the analysis; adding, by the network captured traffic distribution device, an increment to a first counter based on the determination; aggregating, by the network captured traffic distribution device, the increments from a predefined plurality of first time periods wherein the predefined plurality of first time periods correspond to a second time period; generating, by the network captured traffic distribution device, a second counter value for the second time period based on the aggregate; and determining, by the network captured traffic distribution device, a percent utilization of the ingress port for the second time period based on the second counter value.