{{unreferenced, date=February 2013
Content processors are sometimes confused with
network processor
A network processor is an integrated circuit which has a feature set specifically targeted at the networking application domain.
Network processors are typically software programmable devices and would have generic characteristics similar to gene ...
s that inspect the packet payload of an IP packet travelling through a computer network. These components allow for the design and deployment of next-generation networking systems that can make packet or message processing decisions based on an awareness of the packet or message content. The work of Content Processors is often termed
Content Processing
Content or contents may refer to:
Media
* Content (media), information or experience provided to audience or end-users by publishers or media producers
** Content industry, an umbrella term that encompasses companies owning and providing mas ...
or Deep Packet Inspection, DPI, though some people feel that the expression DPI is too limiting as many Content Processors can modify and re-write content on the fly - therefore they can do much more than just inspect which implies a sort of monitoring only function.
Unlike knowledge based processors or Ternary Content-addressable memory (TCAMS), which mainly target the packet header (twenty percent of the packet currently comprises the header), content processors go much further into the packet or message thereby determining the nature of the content in the packet itself (80% of the packet currently is data).
Applications of content processors include: layer 7 application,
application-oriented networks {{unreferenced, date=September 2016
Application-oriented networking (AON) involves network devices designed to aid in computer-to-computer application integration. Application-oriented networks are sometimes called "intelligent networks" or "conten ...
computer appliances
A computer appliance is a home appliance with software or firmware that is specifically designed to provide a specific computing resource. Such devices became known as ''appliances'' because of the similarity in role or management to a home a ...
compliance
Compliance can mean:
Healthcare
* Compliance (medicine), a patient's (or doctor's) adherence to a recommended course of treatment
* Compliance (physiology), the tendency of a hollow organ to resist recoil toward its original dimensions (this is a ...
,
OIP OIP may refer to:
* Ohio Institute of Photography, US
* Ovamboland Independence Party, later National Democratic Party, Namibia
* Oil-for-Food Programme, a former UN programme in Iraq
** Former Oil-for-Food Programme#Investigations, Office of the I ...
and XML gateways. The various layers of the OSI model are given in the link that follows with a description of layer 7 where content processing is and will become and integral part of the intelligent network as the next generation networks mature.
Advanced Content Processors can both examine and transform content. For example: Microsoft's new Office 2007 product has the ability to save documents in an open XML format, instead of .ppt, .xls and .doc applications will save to an encapsulated (actually
ZIP
Zip, Zips or ZIP may refer to:
Common uses
* ZIP Code, USPS postal code
* Zipper or zip, clothing fastener
Science and technology Computing
* ZIP (file format), a compressed archive file format
** zip, a command-line program from Info-ZIP
* Zi ...
) file type named .pptx, .xlsx and .docx. So a content processor could be used to examine all of a corporations documents and replace one company name with another, or change an included corporate logo - all because the structured data represented in XML can be manipulated much more easily than a proprietary and undocumented format. XML is often described as a self-describing language.
Some Content Processors support the ability to handle both message-based or packet-by-packet analysis and some can keep track of content across multiple packets so that the signatures they may be searching for can cross packet boundaries and they will still be found.
See also
*
Network processor
A network processor is an integrated circuit which has a feature set specifically targeted at the networking application domain.
Network processors are typically software programmable devices and would have generic characteristics similar to gene ...