NetScout Systems, Inc.
Automatically determining over-the-top applications and services

Abstract:

A method for determining Over-The-Top (OTT) applications includes receiving, by an active agent, a list of OTT service platforms to be monitored. The received list includes URLs associated with various applications that are delivered by the OTT service platforms. The active agent connects to the URLs to determine information uniquely identifying OTT applications. The active agent stores the information in a repository. A network monitor monitors data flows between a plurality of sources and destinations on a network. Each of the data flows includes a plurality of data packets of the various applications that are delivered OTT. The network monitor extracts at least a portion of header information from each of monitored data packets. The network monitor identifies an OTT application occurring on the network based on the extracted header information and based on the information uniquely identifying various applications stored in the repository.