Deep packet inspection tools and techniques in commodity platforms: Challenges and trends

Deep packet inspection (DPI) helps Internet service providers in efforts to profile networked applications. By relying on DPI systems, Internet service providers may apply different charging policies, traffic shaping, or offer quality of service (QoS) guarantees to selected users or applications. As critical network services rely on the precise characterization of network flows, building agile and efficient DPI systems has recently become an important research topic. In this paper, we present a comprehensive literature review on the tools and techniques necessary to develop modern DPI systems. We provide the essential technical background material and examine the current body of research in DPI engines’ optimization for commodity platforms. Then we discuss current research challenges and present guidelines for building high performance DPI systems.