A Hierarchical Approach to Encrypted Data Packet Classification in Smart Home Gateways

With the pervasive network based services in smart homes, traditional network management cannot guarantee enduser quality-of-experience (QoE) for all applications. End-user QoE must be supported by efficient network quality-of-service (QoS) measurement and efficient network resource allocation. With the software-defined network technology, the core network may be controlled more efficiently by a network service provider. However, end-to-end network QoS can hardly be improved the managing the core network only. In this paper, we propose an encrypted packet classification scheme for smart home gateways to improve end-to-end QoS measurement from the network operator side. Furthermore, other services such as statistical data collecting, billing to service providers, etc., can be provided without compromising end-user privacy nor security of a network. The proposed encrypted packet classification scheme has a two-level hierarchical structure. One is the service level, which is based on applications that have the same network QoS requirements. A faster classification scheme based on deep learning is proposed to achieve real-time classification with high accuracy. The other one is the application level, which is based on fine-grained applications. A non-real-time classifier can be applied to provide high accuracy. Evaluation is conducted on both level classifiers to demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of the two types of classifiers.