Method for automatically classifying traffic with enhanced hierarchy in a packet communications network

Abstract

In packet communication, a method for automatically classifying packet flows for use in allocating bandwidth resources and the like by a rule of assignment of a service level. By rendering discoverable the attributes of a flow specification for packet flows, a finer grained hierarchy of classification is provided automatically that is based on information which is specific to the type of program or application supported by the flow and thus allowing greater flexibility in control over different flows within the same application. The method comprises applying individual instances of traffic classification paradigms to packet network flows based on selectable information obtained from a plurality of layers to define a characteristic class, then mapping the flow to the defined traffic class. The flow specification is provided with some application-specific attributes, some of which are discoverable. The discoverable attributes lead to an ability to automatically create sub-nodes of nodes for finer-grained control.