Detecting And Measuring Network Route Reconvergence Using In-Band Data Probes

• US 20120151032A1
• Filed: 12/08/2010
• Published: 06/14/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ciavattone, Leonard
• Granted Patent: US 9,137,128 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0811 by checking connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/286 Time to live

Abstract

The present disclosure is directed to systems and methods for detecting and measuring network route reconvergence using in-band data probes. The probes are generated and inserted into the network. The probes are routed to an insertion point, corresponding to a beginning of a measurement line, via an in-band connection such as a virtual private network. The in-band connection is configured such that the time-to-live field of the probes is not affected by network path changes occurring in the in-band connection. The probes are routed through the measurement line to measure network route reconvergence. The measurement line is configured to affect the time-to-live field of the probes to reflect network path changes occurring along the measurement line. The probes are extracted from an extraction point corresponding to an end of the measurement line and routed back to the measurement device for analysis.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for measuring network route reconvergence, the method comprising computer-implemented operations at least for:

inserting at an in-band connection a probe comprising a time-to-live field, the in-band connection configured not to change the time-to-live field for network path changes occurring at the in-band connection;

routing the probe to an extraction point located at an end of a measurement line with an insertion point being located at a beginning of the measurement line, wherein the measurement line is configured to change the time-to-live field for network path changes occurring at the measurement line; and

analyzing the probe at a measurement device to measure the network route reconvergence based, at least partially, upon a value in the time-to-live field, wherein the time-to-live field reflects network path changes occurring at the measurement line.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating the probe at the measurement device.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising inserting the probe into the in-band connection at the measurement device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the in-band connection comprises a device configured as a virtual private network.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the measurement line comprises a further in-band connection.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the in-band connection comprises a device configured in accordance with a multiprotocol label switching virtual private network routing and forwarding technology.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving the probe routed from the extraction point to the measurement device via a further in-band connection, the further in-band connection comprising a device configured as a further virtual private network.

8. A computer-implemented method for measuring network route reconvergence, the method comprising computer-implemented operations at least for:

inserting at an in-band connection a probe comprising a time-to-live field, the in-band connection configured not to change the time-to-live field for network path changes occurring at the in-band connection;

routing the probe to an extraction point located at an end of a measurement line with an insertion point being located at a beginning of the measurement line, the probe being routed to the insertion point via the in-band connection, wherein the measurement line comprises a further in-band connection configured to change the time-to-live field for network path changes occurring at the further in-band connection; and

analyzing the probe at a measurement device to determine the network route reconvergence associated with the measurement line, the network route reconvergence being determined based, at least partially, upon a value in the time-to-live field of the probe, wherein the time-to-live field of the probe reflects network path changes occurring at the measurement line.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising generating the probe at the measurement device.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the measurement device is configured to insert the probe into the in-band connection.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the in-band connection comprises a device configured as a virtual private network.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the further in-band connection comprises a further device configured as a further virtual private network.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the in-band connection comprises a device configured in accordance with a multiprotocol label switching virtual private network routing and forwarding technology.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the further in-band connection comprises a further device configured in accordance with the multiprotocol label switching virtual private network routing and forwarding technology.

15. A computer storage medium comprising computer executable instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer at least to:

generate a probe at a measurement device, the probe comprising a time-to-live field;

route the probe through a network to measure network route reconvergence, the network comprising an in-band connection configured not to change the time-to-live field for network path changes occurring at the in-band connection and a measurement line comprising a further in-band connection configured to change the time-to-live field for network path changes occurring at the measurement line;

receive the probe at the measurement device; and

analyze the probe at the measurement device to determine the network route reconvergence based, at least partially, upon a value in the time-to-live field, wherein the time-to-live field of the probe comprises a value reflecting network path changes occurring at the measurement line.

16. The computer storage medium of claim 15, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to insert the probe into the in-band connection at the measurement device.

17. The computer storage medium of claim 15, wherein the in-band connection comprises a device configured as a virtual private network.

18. The computer storage medium of claim 15, wherein the measurement line comprises a device configured as a virtual private network.

19. The computer storage medium of claim 15, wherein the in-band connection comprises a device configured in accordance with a multiprotocol label switching virtual private network routing and forwarding technology.

20. The computer storage medium of claim 19, wherein the further in-band connection comprises a further device configured in accordance with the multiprotocol label switching virtual private network routing and forwarding technology.