Cisco Network Based Application Recognition (NBAR) and Distributed Network Based Application Recognition (dNBAR)

This Cisco feature works as a classification engine within an IP QoS environment and can be implemented on a range of Cisco routers. NBAR features allow for the classification of traffic which can in turn help the network administrator implement bandwidth saving functions.
Release 12.1 (12c) E of the Cisco IOS can, for example, classify peer to peer filesharing protocols such as Gnutella and FastTrack

The NBAR feature is supported on the following Cisco equipment:

Cisco 1700

Cisco 2600

Cisco 3600

Cisco 3700

Cisco 7100

Cisco 7100 UBR

Cisco 7200

Cisco 7200 UBR

Cisco 7500 with VIP

Catalyst 6000 family switch with a FlexWAN module

Cisco documentation states that:

" NBAR is a classification engine that recognises a wide variety of applications, including web-based and other difficult to classify protocols that utilise dynamic TCP / UDP port assignments. When an application is recognised and classified by NBAR, a network can involve services for that specific application. NBAR ensures that network bandwidth is used efficiently by classifying packets and then applying Quality of Service (QoS) to the classified traffic. Some examples of class-based QoS features that can be used on traffic after the traffic is classified by NBAR include:

• Class-Based marking (the set command)
• Class-Based Weighted Fair Queuing (the bandwidth and queue-limit commands)
• Low Latency Queuing (the priority command)
• Traffic Policing (the police command)
• Traffic Shaping (the shape command) "

Cisco NBAR Feature overview documentation

For further information, including supported Cisco IOS platforms, please see the NBAR documentation section of the Cisco website