Guest

Some Areas of Interest

Protocol Classification

Goals and Objectives

The goal of this research area is to address trade-offs among flexibility, speed, and cost, related to protocol description languages for high-speed packet classification used by engineers to build stronger integration of applications with network device. In addition, this area explores simpler language in classifications to be used by the endpoint customer.

Languages

PDF document View PDF version

Overview

High-speed packet classification research encompasses the investigation of novel techniques for flexible packet classification at very high speed, focusing on the protocol description and recognition components.

Flexibility is traditionally a software-based solution. Speed is most often obtained through dedicated hardware such as ASICs. Cost is commonly reduced by incorporating such capabilities into the data path of a network device.

Potential research topics should also seek to address customer-facing languages to provide easier customization and greater flexibility to adapt to new protocols and applications as they evolve.

Protocol classification and description languages


  • Comparison of "stateful" and "stateless" techniques, "signature-based" and "behavioral" strategies for in-depth (L7) packet analysis
  • Profiling and architectural-level decomposition of packet-processing
  • Architectural issues for a new generation of ASICs for line-rate L7 processing, hardware vs. software decomposition, software optimization
  • Languages available to customers for protocol description and packet classification.

If your research topic doesn't directly address any of the proposed RFPs please submit it as a generic proposal for this area.

If you have comments, questions or feedbacks related to this area please don't hesitate to contact us at research-pdl@cisco.com

Return to Top