US Patent 10044620 Multi-phase IP-flow-based classifier with domain name and HTTP header awareness

An apparatus and method for classifying traffic data in a communication network based on IP flow. Traffic data in a communication network is monitored in order to detect an IP flow. A preliminary classification is assigned to the IP flow based on protocol information contained in its first packet. Subsequent packets within the IP flow are further monitored, and the IP flow is reclassified based, in part, on the domain name of the responding server. Web pages can also be classified, and monitored to determine their response time.