Disclosed herein are systems and methods for multi-level classification of data traffic flows based on information in a first packet for a data traffic flow. In exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, a key can be generated from intercepted DNS data to track data traffic flows by application names and destination IP addresses. Based on these keys, patterns can be discerned to infer data traffic information based on only the information in a first packet, such as destination IP address. The determined patterns can be used to predict classifications of future traffic flows with similar key information. In this way, data traffic flows can be classified and steered in a network based on limited information available in a first packet.

Methods, systems, and devices for communications are described. One or more flows between a node and one or more other nodes in a communication network may be monitored over a time period. During the monitoring, it may be identified that, during a subset of the time period, communications over at least one of the flows were restricted by the communication network based on receiving at least one indicator of congestion for the at least one flow. A quantity of traffic communicated over the one or more flows during the subset of the time period may then be determined, and respective flow rates of the one or more flows may be obtained. The obtained flow rates may be used to calculate a data rate of one or more connections between the node and the one or more other nodes.

A communication method and apparatus. A user plane network element perform refined differentiated processing on different data packets to adapt to and meet different user requirements and network conditions. A first user plane network element receives a first data packet, where the first data packet carries first indication information. The first user plane network element processes the first data packet based on the first indication information. The first indication information includes one or more of the following: synchronous transmission indication information, packet discard indication information, data type indication information, charging indication information, statistics indication information, or priority indication information.

A communication method and apparatus. A user plane network element perform refined differentiated processing on different data packets to adapt to and meet different user requirements and network conditions. A first user plane network element receives a first data packet, where the first data packet carries first indication information. The first user plane network element processes the first data packet based on the first indication information. The first indication information includes one or more of the following: synchronous transmission indication information, packet discard indication information, data type indication information, charging indication information, statistics indication information, or priority indication information.

A system and method to transmit frames from a first node to a second node over a plurality of radio links comprising a classifier to classify said frames according to one of a plurality of flow and a sequence number within said one of said plurality of flow and adding said flow and sequence number in a header of said classified frame a splitter receiving said classified frames from said classifier and distributing said classified frames on one of said plurality of radio links for transmission to said second node, a joiner receiving said classified frames and reordering them using an indexed sequence queue corresponding to each of said plurality of flows, a timer for waiting for frames missing in the sequence in one of said indexed sequence queue, wherein when said timer expires, if said frame has not arrived it is deemed lost and a forwarder to extract frames from said sequence queue to forward.

A system and method to transmit frames from a first node to a second node over a plurality of radio links comprising a classifier to classify said frames according to one of a plurality of flow and a sequence number within said one of said plurality of flow and adding said flow and sequence number in a header of said classified frame a splitter receiving said classified frames from said classifier and distributing said classified frames on one of said plurality of radio links for transmission to said second node, a joiner receiving said classified frames and reordering them using an indexed sequence queue corresponding to each of said plurality of flows, a timer for waiting for frames missing in the sequence in one of said indexed sequence queue, wherein when said timer expires, if said frame has not arrived it is deemed lost and a forwarder to extract frames from said sequence queue to forward.

In one embodiment, a network flow sampling system includes packet processing circuitry to process data packets of multiple network flows, and an adaptive policer to, for each one network flow of the multiple network flows compute a quantity of flow-specific sampling credits to be assigned to the one network flow responsively to a quantity of the network flows currently being processed by the packet processing circuitry, assign the flow-specific sampling credits to the one network flow, sample at least one of the data packets of the one network flow responsively to availability of the flow-specific sampling credits of the one network flow yielding sampled data, while applying sampling fairness among the network flows, and remove at least one of the flow-specific sampling credits of the one network flow from availability responsively to sampling the at least one data packet of the one network flow.

In one embodiment, a network flow sampling system includes packet processing circuitry to process data packets of multiple network flows, and an adaptive policer to, for each one network flow of the multiple network flows compute a quantity of flow-specific sampling credits to be assigned to the one network flow responsively to a quantity of the network flows currently being processed by the packet processing circuitry, assign the flow-specific sampling credits to the one network flow, sample at least one of the data packets of the one network flow responsively to availability of the flow-specific sampling credits of the one network flow yielding sampled data, while applying sampling fairness among the network flows, and remove at least one of the flow-specific sampling credits of the one network flow from availability responsively to sampling the at least one data packet of the one network flow.

Methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture for advertising network layer reachability information specifying a quality of service for an identified network flow are disclosed. Example methods disclosed herein to specify quality of service for network flows include receiving network layer reachability information including a first quality of service class specified for a first network flow, the network layer reachability information having been advertised by a first network element that is to receive the first network flow. Such example methods can also include updating an incoming packet determined to belong to the first network flow to indicate that the incoming packet belongs to the first quality of service class, the incoming packet being received from a second network element. Such example methods can further include, after updating the incoming packet, routing the incoming packet towards the first network element.

Methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture for advertising network layer reachability information specifying a quality of service for an identified network flow are disclosed. Example methods disclosed herein to specify quality of service for network flows include receiving network layer reachability information including a first quality of service class specified for a first network flow, the network layer reachability information having been advertised by a first network element that is to receive the first network flow. Such example methods can also include updating an incoming packet determined to belong to the first network flow to indicate that the incoming packet belongs to the first quality of service class, the incoming packet being received from a second network element. Such example methods can further include, after updating the incoming packet, routing the incoming packet towards the first network element.