Patent Document ID: 10050892
Application ID: 14596786
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for packet classification, comprising: storing, in a computer memory of a network device, characteristic signatures of packet flows for network applications, the packet flows including two or more packets and the characteristic signature including a pattern of two or more packet attributes of the two or more packets in the packet flows for a network application, the packet attributes including patterns of time when packets of certain payload sizes are received; receiving a stream of network packets at the network device; identifying one or more packet flows in the stream of network packets, the one or more packet flows defined by packets having at least a characteristic packet type, a same source, and a same destination; processing the packets, at a packet processor, to obtain packet attributes of packets in the respective packet flows by extracting the one or more packet attributes from headers of the packets in the one or more packet flows, wherein extracting includes bit-masking the headers of the packets to extract a total length of the packets and one or more header lengths, and calculating a payload size by subtracting the header lengths from the total length; and identifying the one or more packet flows as being associated with a given network application when the packet attributes of packets in the packet flow correspond to the characteristic signature of the given network application.