Traffic Classification Overview

Terms

For traffic classification, it is helpful to understand these key terms.

Why Classify Traffic?

In order to analyze or control one type of traffic distinctly, PacketWise must be able to differentiate it from other types of traffic. The traffic tree's traffic classes are Packeteer 's mechanism for identifying and organizing different types of traffic.

For example, if you want to measure distinct response times for SAP and Oracle, then your traffic tree must distinguish SAP from Oracle traffic and have separate classes for each. Or, if you want to allocate set amounts of bandwidth to your Paris and Oslo offices, then your tree must separate Paris traffic from Oslo traffic and have separate classes for each.

PacketWise differentiates one application from another by evaluating characteristics in traffic flows and organizing them into classes. Each traffic class contains at least one matching rule, a set of characteristics that identifies a specific traffic type.

While many applications or devices can identify traffic on well-known ports, PacketWise is "application aware" and goes beyond classification by port number. For example, QuickTime can be embedded within HTTP and generally could be categorized as web traffic on port 80; however, PacketWise is able to differentiate QuickTime traffic from other web traffic.

Creating Traffic Classes

Traffic classes can be created automatically, using the traffic discovery feature, or manually.

• To enable the traffic discovery feature, see Enable/Disable Traffic Discovery.
• To create a traffic class manually, see Create a Traffic Class.

See also:

Traffic Tree Overview

Classify Network Traffic