A Network Analytics Engine (NAE) is a tool or system designed to analyze network traffic and data to gain insights into network performance, security, and overall health. It provides real-time monitoring, anomaly detection, and advanced analytics to help organizations understand the behavior of their network and identify potential security threats, bottlenecks, or other performance issues.

Some Network Analytics Engines employ deep packet inspection to analyze the contents of network packets, providing a more granular view of network activity. This is useful for detecting application-layer attacks, such as SQL injection or command-and-control traffic, as well as identifying bandwidth-hogging applications.