Thanks much for the response. I lieu of any other writeup, I found this post Packetbeat:How to add a new protocol? that describes some steps.
Specifically, what I'm looking to do is add a new protocol, that sits above UDP (i.e. application layer).
I don't find a good example to base off of then. I see a DNS UDP implementation but I don't think that this uses the plugin method that seems to be the prescribed way to go. If there's a better example of a protocol to use please indicate (UDP example, if it matters much as different from a protocol that sits above TCP such as HTTP ...)
Just a basic outline as to how to begin would be most helpful, such as in the post above.
Thanks again -
David H.