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Abstract

A content aware network device is described that is able to scan the contents of entire data packets including header and payload information. The network device includes a physical interface for converting analog network signal into bit streams and vise versa. The bit stream from the physical interface is sent to a traffic flow scanning processor that may be, but is not necessarily, divided into a header processor and a payload analyzer. The header processor scans the header information from each data packet, which is used to determine routing information and session identification. The payload analyzer scans the data packet's payload and matches the payload against a database of known strings. The payload analyzer is able to scan across packet boundaries and to scan for strings of variable and arbitrary length. Once the payload has been scanned the network device can operate on the data packet based on the results of the payload analyzer. The scanned data packets and the associated conclusions are then passed to a quality of service processor which modifies the data packets if necessary and performs traffic management and traffic shaping on the flow of data packets based on contents of the data packets.

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First Claim