Entropy and value based packet truncation

Abstract

In one embodiment, an apparatus comprises an input port to receive ingress computer data packets and egress computer data packets into and out of a computer network with a wide area network; a packet analyzer to identify header fields and a starting point of payload data in the computer data packets; an entropy calculator to examine each octet of the payload data to generate an entropy estimate for the computer data packets; and a comparator to compare the entropy estimate with a threshold value to generate a signal indicating that the payload data can be truncated to conserve storage space.

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