Packet capture is commonly used in networks to monitor the traffic their users are producing. This allows network operators to detect and monitor threats. Libtrace is a library which provides a simple programming interface for the capture and analysis of network packets.

This project aims to implement extend libtrace to support the processing of network packets in parallel, to better libtrace’s performance. We name the solution developed in this project parallel libtrace. An overview of parallel libtrace and the design process is presented. The challenges encountered in the design of parallel libtrace are described in more detail. By designing a user friendly and efficient library we have been able to improve the performance of some libtrace applications.