Patent ID: 8879415

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving a data packet flow record from a first network device by a second network device, the data packet flow record including initial network flow information from the first network device in a standard flow record format; analyzing the initial network flow information of the received data packet flow record by the second network device to determine one or more additional network flow attributes to be annotated in the received data packet flow record; encoding the one or more additional network flow attributes in the received data packet flow record while maintaining the initial network flow information by the second network device to yield an enhanced data packet flow record, the encoding adding new field type definitions to represent the additional network flow attributes; and distributing the enhanced data packet flow record having the encoded additional network flow attributes from the second network device to one or more additional network devices according to a configurable distribution list, the initial network flow information of the enhanced data flow record is accessible by each network device of the one or more additional network devices when at least one network device of the additional network devices is not configured to interpret the one or more additional network flow attributes.