US Patent 8125908 Adaptive network traffic classification using historical context

Adaptive network traffic classification using historical context. Network traffic may be monitored and classified by considering several attributes using packet filters, regular expressions, context-free grammars, rule sets, and/or protocol dissectors, among other means and by applying a variety of techniques such as signature matching and statistical analysis. Unlike static systems, the classification decisions may be reexamined from time to time or after subsequent processing determines that the traffic does not conform to the protocol specification corresponding to the classification decision. Historical context may be used to adjust the classification strategy for similar or related traffic.