IPS Bypass Control for Trusted Applications

Zyxel_Lynn

Optimizing IPS Performance

Zyxel has introduced IPS Bypass Control to address high CPU usage scenarios, particularly in environments with heavy encrypted UDP traffic like schools or campuses.

The Challenge of Encrypted Traffic

Traditional IPS inspection often struggles with encrypted UDP protocols such as QUIC or media streams. While the IPS cannot fully inspect the payload of these packets, the attempt to do so still consumes significant CPU cycles.

Trusted Application Bypass

To optimize performance, Zyxel now maintains a "Trusted Application" list. Specific traffic types for high-bandwidth applications such as YouTube (QUIC-based), OneDrive, Microsoft Teams, and Instagram are bypassed by the IPS engine.

• Specific Bypassing: The bypass only applies to the specific traffic types defined (e.g., QUIC/UDP); standard TCP traffic for these same applications is still subject to full IPS scanning.
• Automatic Updates: This list is read-only and managed by Zyxel. Updates to the trusted list are delivered via signature updates, meaning no firmware upgrade is required to support new trusted apps.