APFA: Asynchronous parallel finite automaton for deep packet inspection in cloud computing

Abstract

Security in cloud computing is getting more and more important recently. Besides passive defense such as encryption, it is necessary to implement real-time active monitoring, detection and defense in the cloud. According to the published researches, DPI (deep packet inspection) is the most effective technology to realize active inspection and defense. However, most recent works of DPI aim at space reduction but could not meet the demands of high speed and stability in the cloud. So, it is important to improve regular methods of DPI, making it more suitable for cloud computing. In this paper, an asynchronous parallel finite automaton named APFA is proposed, by introducing the asynchronous parallelization and the heuristically forecast mechanism, which significantly decreases the time consumed in matching while still keeps reducing the memory required. What is more, APFA is immune to the overlapping problem so that the stability is also enhanced. The evaluation results show that APFA achieves higher stability, better performance on time and memory. In short, APFA is more suitable for cloud computing. © 2009 Springer-Verlag.