Apparatus and Methods for Forwarding Data Packets Captured from a Network

1. A system, comprising: a data packet capture apparatus; a data packet forwarding apparatus including: a data packet receiving interface; a data packet forwarding interface; a configuration interface; and circuitry that implements a plurality of data packet forwarding paths between the data packet receiving interface and the data packet forwarding interface, the circuitry configuring at least one of the plurality of data packet forwarding paths in response to input received via the configuration interface, and the circuitry adaptively reconfiguring at least one of the plurality of data packet forwarding paths i) in response to input received via the configuration interface, and ii) while data packets are being received by the packet forwarding apparatus, wherein one of the data packet forwarding paths includes a data packet sampling circuit and wherein adaptively re-configuring at least one of the plurality of data packet forwarding paths includes changing a parameter of the data packet sampling circuit and, by changing the parameter, changing a rate at which packets are forwarded to a downstream application from an arbitrary or high speed flow rate at which data packets are captured from a network to a lower flow rate that is within the processing capacity of the downstream application, wherein each of the captured data packets comprises packetized information carried over the network, wherein the downstream application comprises a traffic monitoring and analysis application and wherein changing the rate at which packets are forwarded to the downstream application includes forwarding only a subset of the captured data packets to the traffic monitoring and analysis application, wherein the subset comprises every n-th captured data packet or n captured data packet per a given time period, wherein n is a number; and wherein the data packet receiving interface comprises a real-time data packet receiving interface and a non-real-time data packet receiving interface; and the circuitry defines at least one real-time data packet forwarding path and at least one non-real-time data packet forwarding path.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one non-real-time data packet forwarding path comprises a non-real-time data packet forwarding path that forwards data that is automatically received at the non-real-time data packet receiving interface.

3. The system of claim 1 , comprising a query interface and wherein the at least one non-real-time data packet forwarding path comprises a non-real-time data packet forwarding path that forwards data received at the non-real-time data packet receiving interface in response to queries issued by the query interface.

4. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a data packet store, wherein: the data packet receiving interface comprises a real-time data packet receiving interface; and the circuitry implements at least one real-time data packet forwarding path and at least one non-real-time data packet forwarding path, the real-time data packet forwarding path i) routing data packets received at the real-time data packet receiving interface to the data packet store, and ii) retrieving at least some of the data packets in the data store for forwarding to the data packet forwarding interface.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein: the at least one data packet receiving interface comprises a real-time data packet receiving interface; the circuitry defines a real-time sampled data packet forwarding path, the real-time sampled data packet forwarding path including the data packet sampling circuit; and the circuitry implements a real-time filtered data packet forwarding path, the real-time filtered data packet forwarding path including a data packet filter.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein: the circuitry implements a filtered data packet forwarding path, the filtered data packet forwarding path including a data packet filter; and the circuitry is configured to receive input via the configuration interface and adaptively reconfigure at least one parameter of the data packet filter while data packets are being received by the packet forwarding apparatus.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the circuitry comprises a field-programmable gate array.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the circuitry comprises a microprocessor.

9. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a packet decoder coupled to the data packet receiving interface, wherein the circuitry configures a particular one of the plurality of data packet forwarding paths in response to configuration information, received via the configuration interface, indicating whether an output of the particular one of the data packet forwarding paths should include raw data packets or decoded data packets.

10. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a physical, network-connectable, data capture probe, the data capture probe being coupled to the data packet receiving interface.

11. A method, comprising: in a data packet forwarding apparatus: receiving data packets derived from a data packet capture apparatus including a physical, network-connectable, data capture probe; receiving configuration information while receiving the data packets; implementing a plurality of data packet forwarding paths, each of the data packet forwarding paths forwarding at least some of the received data packets to a respective one of a plurality of data packet outputs, the implementing including, defining at least two of the data packet forwarding paths to forward data packets at different rates; and adaptively reconfiguring at least one of the plurality of data packet forwarding paths in response to the received configuration information, wherein one of the data packet forwarding paths includes a data packet sampling circuit and wherein adaptively re-configuring at least one of the plurality of data packet forwarding paths includes changing a parameter of the data packet sampling circuit and, by changing the parameter, changing a rate at which packets are forwarded to a downstream application from an arbitrary or high speed flow rate at which data packets are captured from a network to a lower flow rate that is within the processing capacity of the downstream application, wherein each of the captured data packets comprises packetized information carried over the network, wherein the downstream application comprises a traffic monitoring and analysis application and wherein changing the rate at which packets are forwarded to the downstream application includes forwarding only a subset of the captured data packets to the traffic monitoring and analysis application; wherein the subset comprises every n-th captured data packet or n captured data packet per a given time period, wherein n is a number; and wherein the implementing the plurality of data packet forwarding paths comprises implementing a real-time data packet forwarding path and a non-real-time data packet forwarding path.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein implementing a plurality of data packet forwarding paths comprises implementing a sampled data packet forwarding path and a filtered data packet forwarding path.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein implementing a plurality of data packet forwarding paths comprises, in response to the received configuration information, adaptively reconfiguring at least one parameter of a data packet filter.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein at least one of the plurality of data packet forwarding paths is implemented at least partly by a field-programmable gate array.

15. The method of claim 11 , wherein at least one of the plurality of data packet forwarding paths is implemented at least partly by a microprocessor.