The present invention relates to a method of managing a network. The
method steps includes extracting a signature from a first traffic flow of
a plurality of traffic flows on the network based on layer-3/layer-4
information of the first traffic flow, storing the signature and an
identification of a layer-7 application associated with the signature in
a signature repository, identifying a second traffic flow of the
plurality of traffic flows being associated with the layer-7 application
by correlating the second traffic flow to the signature, and managing the
network based on layer-7 application identification of the plurality of
traffic flows.