Classifiers Unclassified
Fangfan Li, Arash Molavi Kakhki, David Choffnes, Phillipa Gill, Alan Mislove · 2016
A variety of network management practices, from bandwidth management to zero-rating, use policies that apply selectively to different categories of Internet traffic (e.g., video, P2P, VoIP). These policies are implemented by middleboxes that must, in real time, assign traffic to a category using a classifier. Despite their important implications for network management, billing, and net neutrality, little is known about classifier implementations because middlebox vendors use proprietary, closed-source hardware and software.