Deep Packet Inspection (
DPI, also called
complete packet inspection and
Information eXtraction or
IX) is a form of
computer network packet filtering that examines the
data part (and possibly also the
header) of a
packet as it passes an inspection point, searching for protocol non-compliance,
viruses,
spam, intrusions, or defined criteria to decide whether the packet may pass or if it needs to be routed to a different destination, or, for the purpose of collecting statistical information. There are multiple headers for IP packets; network equipment only needs to use the first of these (the
IP header) for normal operation, but use of the second header (TCP, UDP etc.) is normally considered to be shallow packet inspection (usually called
Stateful Packet Inspection) despite this definition.