Latency measurer

• US 10,425,308 B2
• Filed: 07/01/2015
• Issued: 09/24/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 07/01/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Inventors: Burke, Paul M, Cheng, Yi, Rodriguez Alvarez, Ruben
• Primary Examiner(s): Kao, Jutai
• Application Number:
  US15/738,099
• Publication Number:
  US 20180183694A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,546 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0858 One way delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/087 Jitter
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/106 using time related information in packets, e.g. by adding timestamps
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/12 Network monitoring probes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/20 the monitoring system or the monitored elements being virtualised, abstracted or software-defined entities, e.g. SDN or NFV
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/28 in relation to timing considerations

Abstract

In some described examples, a latency measurer receives packets from a tapping point. The packets may comprise wrapped packets including a wrapper header. The wrapper header may include a capture timestamp, a tapping point identifier, packet address and port information, and a message content hash.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a message queue to receive wrapped packets from tapping points, the wrapped packets each comprising a packet and a wrapper header, the wrapper header comprising;

a capture timestamp;

a tapping point identifier;

a packet address and a packet port;

a message content hash; and

if present in the packet, an inner address, and an inner port; and

a non-transitory computer readable medium including instructions executable by a processor to, for each of a set of wrapped packets received from a set of tapping points;

calculate a correlation key using wrapper header data;

match wrapped packets having matching correlation keys;

calculate a message latency through the set of set of tapping points using the capture timestamps of the matched wrapped packets, wherein the correlation key is calculated for a first wrapped packet received from a first tapping point using different wrapper header data elements than for a second wrapped packet received from a second tapping point.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the packet address is a packet source address;

the packet port is a packet source port;

if present, the inner address is an inner source address, the inner port is an inner source port; and

the wrapper header further comprises;

a packet destination address;

a packet destination port; and

if present, an inner destination address and an inner destination port.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein:

for a first tapping point receiving encapsulated packets, the correlation key is a combination of the inner destination address, inner destination port, and the message content hash; and

for a second tapping point receiving decapsulated packets, the correlation key is a combination of the packet destination address, packet destination port, and the message content hash.

4. The system of claim 1, the executable instructions further to, for each wrapped packet i of the set of wrapped packets:

use the correlation key to determine whether a session exists for the wrapped packet i;

if a session does not exist and the tapping point identifier for the wrapped packet i is for a first tapping point in the set of tapping points, create the session;

if a session does exist, retrieve a previous wrapped packet of the session, update a latency measurement for the session using the difference of the capture timestamp of the current wrapped packet and the capture timestamp of the previous matched packet, and store the current matched packet associated with the session.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the set of wrapped packets is a percentage of packets received within a time window having a common quality of service level.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of message queues, the message queue being one of the plurality, each message queue to receive wrapped packets having an associated distribution hash value.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein each of the distribution hash values is a subset of the message content hash values of the wrapped packets received by the associated message queue.

8. A method, comprising:

capturing a packet at a tapping point;

wrapping the packet with a header, the header comprising;

a capture timestamp;

a tapping point ID;

a packet address and a packet port;

a message content hash; and

if present, an inner address, and an inner port; and

sending the wrapped packet to a latency measurer;

calculating a distribution hash as a subset of the message content hash; and

sending the wrapped packet to a latency measurer queue based on the distribution hash.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the packet address is a destination packet address, the packet port is a destination packet port, the inner address is an inner destination address, and the inner port is an inner destination port.

10. A latency measurer comprising:

a message queue to receive wrapped packets from tapping points, the wrapped packets each comprising a packet and a wrapper header, the wrapper header comprising;

a capture timestamp;

a tapping point identifier;

a packet address and a packet port;

a message content hash; and

if present in the packet, an inner address, and an inner port;

a correlator to, for each of a set of wrapped packets received from a set of tapping points;

calculate a correlation key using wrapper header data;

match wrapped packets having matching correlation keys;

calculate a message latency through the set of set of tapping points using the capture timestamps of the matched wrapped packets;

wherein the correlator is to, for each wrapped packet i of the set of wrapped packets;

use the correlation key to determine whether a session exists for the wrapped packet i;

if a session does not exist and the tapping point identifier for the wrapped packet i is for a first tapping point in the set of tapping points, create the session;

if a session does exist, retrieve a previous wrapped packet of the session, update a latency measurement for the session using the difference of the capture timestamp of the current wrapped packet and the capture timestamp of the previous matched packet, and store the current matched packet associated with the session.

11. The latency measurer of claim 10, wherein:

the packet address is a packet source address;

the packet port is a packet source port;

if present, the inner address is an inner source address, the inner port is an inner source port;

the wrapper header further comprises;

a packet destination address;

a packet destination port; and

if present, an inner destination address and an inner destination port, and

the correlator is to calculate the correlation key using different wrapper header data elements for different tapping points.

12. The latency measurer of claim 11, wherein:

for a first tapping point receiving encapsulated packets, the correlation key is a combination of the inner destination address, inner destination port, and the message content hash; and

for a second tapping point receiving decapsulated packets, the correlation key is a combination of the packet destination address, packet destination port, and the message content hash.

13. The latency measurer of claim 10, wherein the set of wrapped packets is a percentage of packets received within a time window having a common quality of service level.

14. The latency measurer of claim 10, further comprising:

a plurality of message queues, the message queue being one of the plurality, each message queue to receive wrapped packets having an associated distribution hash value.

15. The latency measurer of claim 10, each the distribution hash value is a subset of the message content hash values of the wrapped packets received by the associated message queue.

16. The latency measurer of claim 15, further comprising:

a plurality of correlators, the correlator being one of the plurality, each correlator associated with a message queue of the plurality of message queues.