Monitoring Quality of a Packet Flow in Packet-Based Communication Networks
First Claim
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1. A system comprising:
- a plurality of routers interconnected by a packet-based network, at least one of the routers comprising;
a network interface, the network interface operable to receive a plurality of packets, make a plurality of forwarding decisions, and transmit the packets according to the forwarding decisions;
a table identifying one or more packet flows, each of the packet flows comprising a plurality of packets;
a monitoring application, the monitoring application operable, for each of the packet flows during each of a plurality of successive monitoring periods, to inspect one or more transport headers of the packets, compile a quantity metric, and determine one or more quality metrics, the quality metrics for a current monitoring period determined according to a previous difference between the quantity metric and a constant, the constant defined by the amount of packets expected to be consumed by a media presentation application during a monitoring period, for a previous monitoring period and a current difference between the quantity metric and the constant for a current monitoring period; and
a memory for storing the quality metrics.
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Abstract
A communication system includes multiple routers interconnected by a packet-based communication network. Each of the routers includes a monitoring application that monitors quality of one or more packet flows during each of multiple successive monitoring periods. For each of the packet flows, the monitoring application determines quality metrics based on information obtained from transport headers of packets.
83 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A system comprising:
a plurality of routers interconnected by a packet-based network, at least one of the routers comprising; a network interface, the network interface operable to receive a plurality of packets, make a plurality of forwarding decisions, and transmit the packets according to the forwarding decisions; a table identifying one or more packet flows, each of the packet flows comprising a plurality of packets; a monitoring application, the monitoring application operable, for each of the packet flows during each of a plurality of successive monitoring periods, to inspect one or more transport headers of the packets, compile a quantity metric, and determine one or more quality metrics, the quality metrics for a current monitoring period determined according to a previous difference between the quantity metric and a constant, the constant defined by the amount of packets expected to be consumed by a media presentation application during a monitoring period, for a previous monitoring period and a current difference between the quantity metric and the constant for a current monitoring period; and a memory for storing the quality metrics. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. An apparatus comprising:
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a network interface, the network interface operable to receive a plurality of packets, make a plurality of forwarding decisions, and transmit the packets according to the forwarding decisions; a table identifying one or more packet flows, each of the packet flows comprising a plurality of packets; a monitoring application, the monitoring application operable, for each of the packet flows during each of a plurality of successive monitoring periods, to inspect one or more transport headers of the packets, compile a quantity metric, and determine one or more quality metrics, the quality metrics for a current monitoring period determined according to a previous difference between the quantity metric and a constant, the constant defined by the amount of packets expected to be consumed by a media presentation application during a monitoring period, for a previous monitoring period and a current difference between the quantity metric and the constant for a current monitoring period; and a memory for storing the quality metrics. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A method comprising:
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receiving a plurality of packets, making a plurality of forwarding decisions, and transmitting the packets according to the forwarding decisions; identifying one or more packet flows, each of the packet flows comprising a plurality of packets; for each of the packet flows during each of a plurality of successive monitoring periods, inspecting one or more transport headers of the packets, compiling a quantity metric, and determining one or more quality metrics, the quality metrics for a current monitoring period determined according to a previous difference between the quantity metric and a constant, the constant defined by the amount of packets expected to be consumed by a media presentation application during a monitoring period, for a previous monitoring period and a current difference between the quantity metric and the constant for a current monitoring period; and storing the quality metrics. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification