Synthetic Transaction Packet Capture for Remote Deep-Packet Inspection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Challenges exist in analyzing data packets to evaluate the performance of digital services due to various security protocols and network configurations, making it difficult to deploy deep-packet inspection engines at client devices, especially at residential locations.
Innovation Solution
A synthetic transaction generator in a container or virtual machine captures packets with timestamps, generating a packet capture trace file that is transmitted to a data processing system for real-time decryption and deep-packet inspection, allowing advanced packet analytics and performance evaluation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a deep-packet inspection engine is deployed at a client device location (e.g., home location), then packet analysis capability is improved, but device complexity and resource requirements worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the deep-packet inspection functionality from the client device environment and relocates it to a centralized data processing system. The synthetic transaction generator captures packets locally and transmits them to the remote data processing system for inspection, eliminating the need for complex inspection engines at client locations while maintaining analysis capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a synthetic transaction generator as an intermediary component that captures packets at the client device and transmits them to the data processing system. This intermediary enables packet analysis without requiring the full deep-packet inspection infrastructure to be deployed at the client location, resolving the contradiction between analysis capability and device complexity.
2Productivity
If packet capture is performed at client device with security protocols enabled, then transaction testing capability is improved, but packet analyzability worsens
Solution Approach 1:
The synthetic transaction generator creates a copy of the packet data and transmits it to the data processing system for analysis. This copying approach allows the original encrypted packets to remain protected while enabling analysis of the packet structure, timing, and metadata without requiring decryption of the actual payload content.
Data Source
AI summary
Generating synthetic transactions with packets is provided. A synthetic transaction generator can store, in a packet capture trace file, packets corresponding to a test of a service provided through a network. The synthetic transaction generator can transmit the packet capture trace file to a data processing system to cause the data processing system to play or analyze the packet capture trace file to evaluate the performance of the service provided by the service provider.