METHOD AND APPARATUS TO PASSIVELY DETERMINE THE STATE OF A FLOW INCLUDING DETERMINING FLOW STATE IN THE EVENT OF MISSING DATA ON ONE OR BOTH SIDES OF THE FLOW

摘要

A method and apparatus is disclosed herein for determining the state of a flow of packets in a network. In one embodiment, the method comprises: monitoring, using a monitoring device, a flow of packets that are part of a connection between two network devices in a network, where the monitoring device is located in the network at one side of the connection; and passively determining a state of the flow while monitoring the flow, including determining at least one state of the flow without receiving data in the flow of packets that specifies the flow is in the at least one state.