FLEXIBLE NETWORK MEASUREMENT

• US 20110085461A1
• Filed: 10/14/2010
• Published: 04/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Liu, Ying, Singh, Sushil, Monclus, Pere, Alaria, Valentina
• Granted Patent: US 8,730,819 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/12 Network monitoring probes

Abstract

A method and a computer-readable storage medium are disclosed for flexible network measurement. Embodiments disclose receiving a network measurement request, transmitting portions of the request to network devices, configuring the network devices to collect metrics from packet data based on the portions of the request, and performing operations to generate metrics as a response to the network measurement request. Embodiments also disclose a flexible, dynamically configurable packet parser. Other embodiments are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

a computer receiving a network measurement request defining a plurality of requested metrics to collect based on network packet traffic;

transmitting from the computer a first portion of the network measurement request to one or more network devices, wherein based on the first portion of the network measurement request the one or more network devices are configured to collect a plurality of first metrics based on packets received at the network devices and to generate one or more packet data streams that contain the collected first metrics;

transmitting from the computer a second portion of the network measurement request to a stream processing engine, wherein based on the second portion of the network measurement request the stream processing engine is configured to collect a plurality of second metrics from the one or more packet data streams;

the computer receiving from the stream processing engine the plurality of second metrics, the plurality of second metrics corresponding to the plurality of requested metrics.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the network measurement request is a relational algebra expression.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising causing a network packet parser to be dynamically configured to collect network data from packets based on the first portion of the network measurement request.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising causing the one or more network devices to be dynamically configured to perform one or more operations in response to receiving a network packet based on the first portion of the network measurement request, wherein the one or more operations include incrementing a counter, averaging packet field values, comparing packet field values, summing packet field values, grouping packet data, hashing packet data, or a combination thereof.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the network measurement request is a streaming structured query language statement, an extensible markup language document, or language-integrated query statement.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting the one or more network devices from a plurality of network devices based on a proximity of the one or more network devices to a target network device identified in the first portion of the network measurement request.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the second portion of the network measurement request defines one or more operations to perform on the one or more packet data streams, wherein the one or more operations include a filtering operation, projection operation, a join operation, or a combination thereof.

8. A method comprising:

a computer receiving a first portion of a network measurement request defining a plurality of requested metrics to generate based on network packet traffic;

receiving at the computer one or more packet data streams generated by one or more network devices based on a plurality of packets received at the one or more network devices and based on a second portion of the network measurement request;

the computer generating a plurality of first metrics based on the one or more packet data streams and corresponding to the plurality of requested metrics defined by the first portion of the network measurement request;

the computer transmitting the plurality of first metrics to the first device as a response to the network measurement request.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the network measurement request comprises a stream query and the first portion of the network measurement request comprises a first sub-query derived from the stream query that causes the computer to perform one or more operations on data from at least two of the one or more packet data streams, wherein the one or more operations include a filtering operation, projection operation, a join operation, or a combination thereof.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the second portion of the network measurement request comprises a second sub-query derived from the stream query that defines packet stream data to generate based on the plurality of packets received at the one or more network devices.

11. A method comprising:

a network device receiving from a first device a first portion of a network measurement request defining a plurality of requested metrics to generate based on network packet traffic;

receiving a plurality of network packets at the network device;

the network device generating a plurality of first metrics based on one or more of the plurality of packets and the first portion of the network measurement request;

the network device transmitting the plurality of first metrics to a stream processing engine in one or more packet data streams, wherein the stream processing engine is configured to generate a plurality of second metrics based on a second portion of the network measurement request and the one or more packet data streams and to transmit the plurality of first metrics to the first device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the network measurement request comprises a stream query and the first portion comprises a sub-query derived from the stream query;

and further comprising;

upon receiving each of the plurality of network packets, performing one or more operations defined by the sub-query on each network packet to generate at least one of the one or more packet data streams.

24. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the network measurement request comprises a stream query and the first portion comprises a sub-query derived from the stream query;

and further comprising;

upon receiving each of the plurality of network packets, performing one or more operations specified by the sub-query on each network packet to generate at least one of the one or more packet data streams.

13. A computer-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the processors to perform:

receiving a network measurement request defining a plurality of requested metrics to collect based on network packet traffic;

transmitting from a first portion of the network measurement request to one or more network devices, wherein based on the first portion of the network measurement request the one or more network devices are configured to collect a plurality of first metrics based on packets received at the network devices and to generate one or more packet data streams that contain the collected first metrics;

transmitting from a second portion of the network measurement request to a stream processing engine, wherein based on the second portion of the network measurement request the stream processing engine is configured to collect a plurality of second metrics from the one or more packet data streams;

receiving from the stream processing engine the plurality of second metrics, the plurality of second metrics corresponding to the plurality of requested metrics.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the network measurement request is a relational algebra expression.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, further comprising causing a network packet parser to be dynamically configured to collect network data from packets based on the first portion of the network measurement request.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, further comprising causing the one or more network devices to be dynamically configured to perform one or more operations in response to receiving a network packet based on the first portion of the network measurement request, wherein the one or more operations include incrementing a counter, averaging packet field values, comparing packet field values, summing packet field values, grouping packet data, hashing packet data, or a combination thereof.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the network measurement request is a streaming structured query language statement, an extensible markup language document, or language-integrated query statement.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, further comprising selecting the one or more network devices from a plurality of network devices based on a proximity of the one or more network devices to a target network device identified in the first portion of the network measurement request.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the second portion of the network measurement request defines one or more operations to perform on the one or more packet data streams, wherein the one or more operations include a filtering operation, projection operation, a join operation, or a combination thereof.

20. A computer-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the processors to perform:

receiving a first portion of a network measurement request defining a plurality of requested metrics to generate based on network packet traffic;

receiving at one or more packet data streams generated by one or more network devices based on a plurality of packets received at the one or more network devices and based on a second portion of the network measurement request;

generating a plurality of first metrics based on the one or more packet data streams and corresponding to the plurality of requested metrics defined by the first portion of the network measurement request;

transmitting the plurality of first metrics to the first device as a response to the network measurement request.

21. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the network measurement request comprises a stream query and the first portion of the network measurement request comprises a first sub-query derived from the stream query that causes the computer to perform one or more operations on data from at least two of the one or more packet data streams, wherein the one or more operations include a filtering operation, projection operation, a join operation, or a combination thereof.

22. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein the second portion of the network measurement request comprises a second sub-query derived from the stream query that defines packet stream data to generate based on the plurality of packets received at the one or more network devices.

23. A computer-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the processors to perform:

receiving from a first device a first portion of a network measurement request defining a plurality of requested metrics to generate based on network packet traffic;

receiving a plurality of network packets;

generating a plurality of first metrics based on one or more of the plurality of packets and the first portion of the network measurement request;

transmitting the plurality of first metrics to a stream processing engine in one or more packet data streams, wherein the stream processing engine is configured to generate a plurality of second metrics based on a second portion of the network measurement request and the one or more packet data streams and to transmit the plurality of first metrics to the first device.