Mike Pennacchi
So, deep packet inspection is the process of dissecting and decoding network traffic. And so we see deep packet inspection used for both troubleshooting and for doing things like providing cybersecurity. We need to be able to take a look at the contents of those packets, whether that is a low layer as far as which device is talking to another device, or the actual data that’s in those packets. This deep packet inspection allows us to correlate communications between devices and look for areas where we might be having issues that could be causing errors, or slowdowns, or where somebody is trying to infiltrate a system.
Vint Cert
You might wonder what is the deep packet inspection Consortium. Why was it created? We know that there are many historical developments that have deep packet inspection capability. And they’ve been extremely useful over time for operational purposes and development purposes. And a lot of the technology that’s been developed has been patented, which is not an uncommon practice in the private sector. However, a lot of the technology was developed in the open atmosphere, open source, for example. And it’s very important for us to protect our ability to continue to evolve these technologies in as open a way as possible. And so, the consortium is there both to protect the continued open evolution of Deep Packet Inspection technology and also to defend parties who are inappropriately attacked by what we sometimes call patent trolls.
Mike Pennacchi
The DPI consortium is a group of independent industry leaders that have come together to form a nonprofit and pull together all the data as much documentation, specifications, and previous art related to the area of deep packet inspection. So, the idea with the consortium is to build this body of art that can be searched and used as research for both the patent office and for companies that are defending against these patent trolls.