Patent Document ID: 20070076606
Application ID: 11226328
Patent Flag: 0

Claim One:
1. A packet flow classification apparatus for on-line real-time traffic flow classification at a communications network node, the packet flow classification apparatus comprising: a. packet sampling means for randomly selecting packets from an aggregate flow with a pre-determined sampling probability; b. packet inspection means for determining the packet size of each sampled packet and for obtaining flow identification of the sampled traffic flow with which the sampled packet is associated; c. a sampled flow information table having sampled flow table entries for storing real-time sampled flow statistical information; d. flow information tracking means for maintaining the flow information table in real-time; e. a group of classification rules trained off-line on statistical trace traffic flow information; and f. a packet classifier for classifying sampled traffic flows on-line in real-time based on the group of off-line trained classification rules.