1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of networking. More specifically, the present invention relates to the detection of undesirable packets headed for a server.
2. Background Information
With advances in integrated circuit, microprocessor, networking and communication technologies, increasing number of devices, in particular, digital computing devices, are being networked together. Devices are often first coupled to a local area network, such as an Ethernet based office/home network. In turn, the local area networks are interconnected together through wide area networks, such as ATM networks, Frame Relays, and the like. Of particular relevance is the TCP/IP based global inter-networks, Internet.
As a result of this trend of increased connectivity, increasing numbers of applications that are network dependent are being deployed. Examples of these network dependent applications include but are not limited to, email, net based telephony, world wide web and various types of e-commerce. Success of many of these content/service providers as well as commerce sites depend on the quality of service that they provide.
Unfortunately, the connectivity that makes it possible for these servers to provide the content/service, also makes it very easy for hackers to launch denial of service (DOS) attacks against these servers. As a result, techniques for detecting and thwarting undesirable network traffic have become a subject of great interest to the artesian. For example, in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/631,898 entitled “A Distributed Solution For Regulating Network Traffic”, a distributed approach for detecting undesirable traffic is disclosed. In co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/685,518, entitled “Progressive and Distributed Regulation of Selected Network Traffic Destined for A Network Node”, a progressive approach to regulating undesirable network traffic is disclosed. While these and other approaches work well and offer various advantages, it is nevertheless further desirable to be able to enable routing devices in a network to be able to independently detect undesirable traffic, and take appropriate action to thwart such traffic as soon as they are detected.