Proxy vs Statefull Inspection

[Unknown <pain () royal net>]

Hello,

        I am a graduate student writing a paper on advantages and disadvantages of
proxy based firewalls (eg. Raptor, SecureIT) vs statefull inspection based
firewalls(eg. FW-1, PIX), and am trying to find more information on this
topic. I looked at the Firewalls Buying Guide on ICSA, as well as vendor
product descriptions pages, but (what a surprise!) every vendor claims that
their method is better. Can anybody direct me to any resources that could
assist me? 

-Igor Gashinsky

PS If you work for the above mentioned companies, and would like to send me
any technical data (not sales material <G>) on the products, I would really
appreciate it.