Netflow probe intended for high-speed networks

With growing speed of communication over the Internet there is a need for a reliable monitoring devices which are able to provide information about spectrum of traffic mix, attacks, applications, etc. This paper proposes architecture of network flow monitoring adapter based on hardware platform COMBO6. With use of field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) placed on these cards it is possible to monitor flows in high-speed environment. Component parts of the architecture and implementation platform are described. Several different models have been created to analyze and prove important characteristics of the architecture and results are derived. The probe is able to monitor 1 million simultaneous flows on an 2Gbps network link.