Systems and methods of classifying data flows being communicated on a network by one or more network elements. One method includes creating a table including information of packet timestamps and pre-defined packet header fields, grouping packets into data flows based on information in the table, assigning flow identifiers to each data flow, determining a plurality of feature/characteristic sets having one or more features and/or one or more characteristics of the data flows, determining one or more classifiers to predict flow labels using the plurality of feature/characteristic sets, and generating a classification policy that includes the one or more classifiers to classify data flows on the network. The method can also include storing the classification policy in at least one non-transitory computer medium that is accessible by a network element that is classifying data flows on the network, and using the classification policy to classify data flows.