Methods, systems and computer program products for evaluating network performance using diagnostic rules

• US 20040193709A1
• Filed: 03/24/2003
• Published: 09/30/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NetIQ Corporation (Open Text Corporation)
• Original Assignee: NetIQ Corporation (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Schumacher, Michael Tod, Wood, John Lee, Selvaggi, Christopher David
• Granted Patent: US 7,680,920 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/06 Generation of reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0829 Packet loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0858 One way delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/087 Jitter
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/103 with adaptive polling, i.e. dynamically adapting the polling rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/106 using time related information in packets, e.g. by adding timestamps
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/50 Testing arrangements

Abstract

Methods, systems and computer program products are provided for evaluating network performance. A path of a communication connection between a first node and a second node is determined. The path includes at least one connecting node. A first set of network performance data associated with the communication connection is obtained. Ones of a plurality of diagnostic rules is automatically evaluated based on the obtained first set of network performance data to identify a second set of network performance data to be collected.

Claims

1. A method for evaluating network performance, the method comprising:

determining a path of a communication connection between a first node and a second node, the path including at least one connecting node;

obtaining a first set of network performance data associated with the communication connection; and

automatically evaluating ones of a plurality of diagnostic rules based on the obtained first set of network performance data to identify a second set of network performance data to be collected.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

obtaining the second set of network performance data; and

evaluating ones of the plurality of diagnostic rules based on the second set of network performance data to identify a third set of network performance data to be collected.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising repeating the evaluating and the identifying operations until none of the plurality of rules identifying further network performance data to be collected is satisfied.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein at least one of the plurality of diagnostic rules generates a network performance diagnosis when none of the plurality of rules identifying further network performance data to be collected is satisfied.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising generating network traffic between the first node and the second node wherein obtaining a first set of network performance data comprises obtaining the first set of network performance data based on the generated network traffic.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein obtaining network performance data further comprises polling at least one of the nodes of the path configured to receive queries while network traffic is being generated to obtain network performance data from the at least one of the nodes of the path.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein determining a path of a communication connection comprises:

running a traceroute from the first node and the second node; and

running a traceroute from the second node to the first node.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein determining a path of a communication connection comprises generating network traffic between the first node and the second node using a real-time transport protocol (RTP) datagram.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the RTP datagram includes voice over internet protocol (VoIP) data.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein determining a path of a communication connection comprises determining the path utilizing an agent located on at least one of the nodes of the path and a simple network management protocol (SNMP).

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the connecting nodes of the path are selected from the group consisting of a router, a switch and a voice gateway.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein an agent located on a first one of the nodes of the path sends a query to a second one of the nodes of the path configured to receive queries to obtain network performance data associated with the second node of the path.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the agent located on the first one of the nodes of the path sends a query to the second one of the nodes of the path using SNMP polling.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

generating active traffic between the first and second nodes; and

calculating the first set of network performance data based on the generated traffic between the first and second nodes.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the calculated first set of network performance data comprises at least one of an end-to-end delay, an end-to-end jitter, an end-to-end jitter buffer loss, an end-to-end loss, an end-to-end mean opinion score, a delay across ones of the nodes of the path, a number of dropped packets for ones of the nodes of the path, a central processing unit utilization for ones of the nodes of the path and/or a memory utilization for ones of the nodes of the path.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein determining a path comprises determining a path of a communication connection if a valid address for the first node and second node are known, the method further comprising diagnosing an invalid address if it is determined that an a valid address for the first node and second node are not known.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein obtaining a first set of network performance data comprises obtaining a first set of network performance data if the path of the communication connection has been determined between the first node and the second node.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein ones of the plurality of diagnostic rules identifying further network performance data to be collected are selected from the group consisting of:

if the path of a communication connection between the first node and the second node has been determined and end-to-end delay network performance data fails to meet a performance criteria, then poll ones of the nodes to obtain network performance data associated with the ones of the nodes;

if at least one of the nodes of the path is located in a WAN, then poll the at least one of the nodes of the path for network performance data associated with the at least one of the nodes of the path; and

if at least one valid node exists on the path of the communication connection, then obtain network performance data associated with the at least one valid node of the path.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein at least one of the plurality of rules that generates a performance diagnosis when none of the plurality of rules identifying further network performance data to be collected is satisfied are selected from the group consisting of:

if a path has been determined and the end-to-end delay does not satisfy a performance criteria, then diagnose an end-to-end delay problem;

if obtained network performance data fails to satisfy a performance criteria associated with end-to-end jitter buffer loss, then diagnose an end-to-end jitter buffer loss problem;

if obtained network performance data fails to satisfy a performance criteria associated with end-to-end MOS, then diagnose an end-to-end MOS problem;

if obtained network performance data fails to satisfy a performance criteria associated with end-to-end jitter, then diagnose an end-to-end jitter problem;

if obtained network performance data fails to satisfy a performance criteria associated with end-to-end loss, then diagnose an end-to-end loss problem;

if the network performance data associated with the at least one valid node of the path has been obtained and the network performance data associated with the at least one valid node of the path fails to satisfy a configuration criteria, then diagnose bad configuration settings associated with the at least one valid node of the path that fails to satisfy a configuration criteria;

if the polling of ones of the nodes of the path has been completed and network performance data associated with the ones of nodes of the path fails to satisfy an associated performance criteria, then diagnose loss rate network performance data associated with ones of the plurality of nodes as failing to satisfy the associated performance criteria;

if the polling of ones of the nodes of the path has been completed and network performance data associated with the ones of nodes of the path fails to satisfy an associated performance criteria, then diagnose bandwidth network performance data associated with ones of the plurality of nodes as failing to satisfy the associated performance criteria; and

if the polling of ones of the nodes of the path has been completed and network performance data associated with the ones of nodes of the path fails to satisfy an associated performance criteria, then diagnose queue length network performance data associated with ones of the plurality of nodes as failing to satisfy the associated performance criteria.

20. A method of evaluating performance of a network that supports packetized voice communications, the method comprising:

generating VoIP traffic between a first node and a second node using an RTP datagram including VoIP data;

determining a path of a communication connection between the first node and the second node based on the generated VoIP traffic, the path including at least one connecting node;

obtaining a first set of network performance data associated with the communication connection based on the generated VoIP traffic; and

automatically evaluating ones of a plurality of diagnostic rules based on the obtained first set of network performance data to identify a second set of network performance data to be collected.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein obtaining the first set of network performance data comprises calculating the first set of network performance data based on the generated traffic between the first and second nodes.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the calculated first set of network performance data comprises at least one of an end-to-end delay, an end-to-end jitter, an end-to-end jitter buffer loss, an end-to-end loss, an end-to-end mean opinion score, a delay across ones of the nodes of the path, a number of dropped packets for ones of the nodes of the path, a central processing unit utilization for ones of the nodes of the path and/or a memory utilization for ones of the nodes of the path.

23. A system for evaluating network performance, the system comprising:

a routing module that is configured to determine a path of a communication connection between a first node and a second node, the path including at least one connecting node;

a performance module that is configured to obtain a first set of network performance data associated with the communication connection; and

a diagnosis module that is configured to automatically evaluate ones of a plurality of diagnostic rules based on the obtained first set of network performance data to identify a second set of network performance data to be collected.

24. The system of claim 23 wherein the diagnosis module if further configured to:

obtain the second set of network performance data; and

evaluate ones of the plurality of diagnostic rules based on the second set of network performance data to identify a third set of network performance data to be collected.

25. The system of claim 24 wherein the diagnosis module if further configured to repeatedly evaluate and identify until none of the plurality of rules identifying further network performance data to be collected is satisfied.

26. The system of claim 25 wherein at least one of the plurality of diagnostic rules generates a network performance diagnosis when none of the plurality of rules identifying further network performance data to be collected is satisfied.

27. The system of claim 23 wherein the performance module is further configured to generate network traffic between the first node and the second node and obtain the first set of network performance data based on the generated network traffic.

28. The system of claim 27 wherein the performance module is further configured to poll at least one of the nodes of the path configured to receive queries while network traffic is being generated to obtain network performance data from the at least one of the nodes of the path.

29. The system of claim 23 wherein the routing module is further configured to:

run a traceroute from the first node and the second node; and

run a traceroute from the second node to the first node.

30. The system of claim 23 wherein the routing module if further configured to generate network traffic between the first node and the second node using a real-time transport protocol (RTP) datagram to obtain the path of the communication connection.

31. The system of claim 30 wherein the RTP datagram includes voice over internet protocol (VoIP) data.

32. The system of claim 23 wherein the routing module if further configured to determine the path utilizing an agent located on at least one of the nodes of the path and a simple network management protocol (SNMP).

33. The system of claim 23 further comprising an agent module located on a first one of the nodes of the path that is configured to send a query to a second one of the nodes of the path configured to receive queries to obtain network performance data associated with the second node of the path.

34. The system of claim 33 wherein the agent module located on the first one of the nodes of the path is further configured to send a query to the second one of the nodes of the path using SNMP polling.

35. The system of claim 23 wherein ones of the plurality of diagnostic rules identifying further network performance data to be collected are selected from the group consisting of:

if the path of a communication connection between the first node and the second node has been determined and end-to-end delay network performance data fails to meet a performance criteria, then poll ones of the nodes to obtain network performance data associated with the ones of the nodes;

if at least one of the nodes of the path is located in a WAN, then poll the at least one of the nodes of the path for network performance data associated with the at least one of the nodes of the path; and

if at least one valid node exists on the path of the communication connection, then obtain network performance data associated with the at least one valid node of the path.

36. The method of claim 35 wherein at least one of the plurality of rules that generates a performance diagnosis when none of the plurality of rules identifying further network performance data to be collected is satisfied are selected from the group consisting of:

if a path has been determined and the end-to-end delay does not satisfy a performance criteria, then diagnose an end-to-end delay problem;

if obtained network performance data fails to satisfy a performance criteria associated with end-to-end jitter buffer loss, then diagnose an end-to-end jitter buffer loss problem;

if obtained network performance data fails to satisfy a performance criteria associated with MOS, then diagnose a MOS problem;

if obtained network performance data fails to satisfy a performance criteria associated with end-to-end jitter, then diagnose an end-to-end jitter problem;

if obtained network performance data fails to satisfy a performance criteria associated with end-to-end loss, then diagnose an end-to-end loss problem;

if the network performance data associated with the at least one valid node of the path has been obtained and the network performance data associated with the at least one valid node of the path fails to satisfy a configuration criteria, then diagnose bad configuration settings associated with the at least one valid node of the path that fails to satisfy a configuration criteria;

if the polling of ones of the nodes of the path has been completed and network performance data associated with the ones of nodes of the path fails to satisfy an associated performance criteria, then diagnose loss rate network performance data associated with ones of the plurality of nodes as failing to satisfy the associated performance criteria;

if the polling of ones of the nodes of the path has been completed and network performance data associated with the ones of nodes of the path fails to satisfy an associated performance criteria, then diagnose bandwidth network performance data associated with ones of the plurality of nodes as failing to satisfy the associated performance criteria; and

if the polling of ones of the nodes of the path has been completed and network performance data associated with the ones of nodes of the path fails to satisfy an associated performance criteria, then diagnose queue length network performance data associated with ones of the plurality of nodes as failing to satisfy the associated performance criteria.

37. A system for evaluating network performance, the system comprising:

means for determining a path of a communication connection between a first node and a second node, the path including at least one connecting node;

means for obtaining a first set of network performance data associated with the communication connection; and

means for automatically evaluating ones of a plurality of diagnostic rules based on the obtained first set of network performance data to identify a second set of network performance data to be collected.

38. The system of claim 37 wherein the means for determining a path of a communication connection comprises means for generating network traffic between the first node and the second node using a real-time transport protocol (RTP) datagram.

39. The system of claim 38 wherein the RTP datagram includes voice over internet protocol (VoIP) data.

40. A computer program product for evaluating network performance, the computer program product comprising:

a computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code embodied in said medium, said computer-readable program code comprising;

computer-readable program code that determines a path of a communication connection between a first node and a second node, the path including at least one connecting node;

computer readable program code that obtains a first set of network performance data associated with the communication connection; and

computer readable program code that automatically evaluates ones of a plurality of diagnostic rules based on the obtained first set of network performance data to identify a second set of network performance data to be collected.

41. The computer program product of claim 40 further comprising:

computer readable program code that obtains the second set of network performance data; and

computer readable program code that evaluates ones of the plurality of diagnostic rules based on the second set of network performance data to identify a third set of network performance data to be collected.

42. The computer program product of claim 41 further comprising computer readable program code that repeatedly evaluates and the identifies until none of the plurality of rules identifying further network performance data to be collected is satisfied.

43. The computer program product of claim 40 wherein at least one of the plurality of diagnostic rules generates a network performance diagnosis when none of the plurality of rules identifying further network performance data to be collected is satisfied.

44. The computer program product of claim 40 further comprising computer readable program code that generates network traffic between the first node and the second node wherein the computer readable program code that obtains a first set of network performance data comprises computer readable program code that obtains the first set of network performance data based on the generated network traffic.

45. The computer program product of claim 40 wherein the computer readable program code that determines a path of a communication connection comprises computer readable program code that generates network traffic between the first node and the second node using a real-time transport protocol (RTP) datagram.

46. The computer program product of claim 45 wherein the RTP datagram includes voice over internet protocol (VoIP) data.

47. The computer program product of claim 40 wherein ones of the plurality of diagnostic rules identifying further network performance data to be collected are selected from the group consisting of:

if the path of a communication connection between the first node and the second node has been determined and end-to-end delay network performance data fails to meet a performance criteria, then poll ones of the nodes to obtain network performance data associated with the ones of the nodes;

if at least one of the nodes of the path is located in a WAN, then poll the at least one of the nodes of the path for network performance data associated with the at least one of the nodes of the path; and

if at least one valid node exists on the path of the communication connection, then obtain network performance data associated with the at least one valid node of the path.

48. The computer program product of claim 47 wherein at least one of the plurality of rules that generates a performance diagnosis when none of the plurality of rules identifying further network performance data to be collected is satisfied are selected from the group consisting of:

if a path has been determined and the end-to-end delay does not satisfy a performance criteria, then diagnose an end-to-end delay problem;

if obtained network performance data fails to satisfy a performance criteria associated with end-to-end jitter buffer loss, then diagnose an end-to-end jitter buffer loss problem;

if obtained network performance data fails to satisfy a performance criteria associated with end-to-end MOS, then diagnose an end-to-end MOS problem;

if obtained network performance data fails to satisfy a performance criteria associated with end-to-end jitter, then diagnose an end-to-end jitter problem;

if obtained network performance data fails to satisfy a performance criteria associated with end-to-end loss, then diagnose an end-to-end loss problem;

if the network performance data associated with the at least one valid node of the path has been obtained and the network performance data associated with the at least one valid node of the path fails to satisfy a configuration criteria, then diagnose bad configuration settings associated with the at least one valid node of the path that fails to satisfy a configuration criteria;

if the polling of ones of the nodes of the path has been completed and network performance data associated with the ones of nodes of the path fails to satisfy an associated performance criteria, then diagnose loss rate network performance data associated with ones of the plurality of nodes as failing to satisfy the associated performance criteria;

if the polling of ones of the nodes of the path has been completed and network performance data associated with the ones of nodes of the path fails to satisfy an associated performance criteria, then diagnose bandwidth network performance data associated with ones of the plurality of nodes as failing to satisfy the associated performance criteria; and

if the polling of ones of the nodes of the path has been completed and network performance data associated with the ones of nodes of the path fails to satisfy an associated performance criteria, then diagnose queue length network performance data associated with ones of the plurality of nodes as failing to satisfy the associated performance criteria.

50. The method according to claim 47 further comprising:

generating network traffic from the second node to the first node using an RTP datagram to determine a path of a VoIP communication connection between the second node and the first node.

49. A method of determining a path of a VoIP communications connection, comprising:

generating network traffic from a first node to a second node using an RTP datagram to determine a path of a VoIP communication connection between the first node and the second node.