TRAFFIC-BASED QUALITY OF SERVICE (QOS) MONITORING IN HIGHLY CONSTRAINED NETWORKS

• US 20140092753A1
• Filed: 09/28/2012
• Published: 04/03/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Vasseur, Jean-Philippe, Dasgupta, Sukrit, Hui, Jonathan W.
• Application Number:
  US13/630,909
• Publication Number:
  US 20140092753A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/248
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/106 using time related information in packets, e.g. by adding timestamps
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/14 Routing performance; Theoretical aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/48 Routing tree calculation

Abstract

In one embodiment, one or more monitoring nodes may monitor network traffic within a computer network, and dynamically identify one or more paths within the network that specifically require performance monitoring based on one or more traffic criteria triggered by the monitoring. The one or more paths may each include one or more path nodes. The one or more monitoring nodes may then request that the one or more path nodes initiate transmission of performance indicia, which may allow the one or more monitoring nodes to monitor the performance of the one or more paths based on the performance indicia received at the one or more monitoring nodes.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

monitoring, at one or more monitoring nodes, network traffic within a computer network;

dynamically identifying one or more paths or individual nodes within the network that specifically require performance monitoring based on one or more traffic criteria triggered by the monitoring, the one or more paths each including one or more path nodes;

requesting that the one or more path nodes or individual nodes initiate transmission of performance indicia; and

monitoring performance of the one or more paths or individual nodes based on the performance indicia received at the one or more monitoring nodes.

2. The method as in claim 1, further comprising:

classifying the dynamically identified one or more paths or individual nodes as necessary for critical or heavy network traffic.

3. The method as in claim 1, further comprising:

comparing the performance of the one or more paths or individual nodes to a service level agreement (SLA) to ensure that the SLA is fulfilled.

4. The method as in claim 1, wherein requesting further comprises:

sending a message to the one or more path nodes or individual nodes, the message including a bloom filter to compress the one or more path nodes or individual nodes into a node list, wherein the message is selected from the group consisting of a routing control plane message, a broadcast message, a multicast message, and a unicast message.

5. The method as in claim 1, wherein the one or more monitoring nodes are a low power and lossy network border router (LBR) or a network sink.

6. The method as in claim 1, wherein information pertaining to the one or more identified path nodes or individual nodes is maintained on the one or more monitoring nodes.

7. The method as in claim 1, wherein the performance indicia are selected from the group consisting of:

jittering, time stamping, delay, received signal strength indication, CPU, battery level, queue length, and any combination thereof.

8. The method as in claim 7, wherein admission state is a metric used by nodes when determining which LLN to join.

9. The method as in claim 1, wherein requesting further comprises:

specifying that the performance indicia be transmitted according to one or more transmission criteria selected from the group consisting of a particular number of transmission packets, a particular transmission time, a particular transmission time interval, and piggybacking the performance indicia on existing user traffic.

10. The method as in claim 3, further comprising:

preparing a QoS report; and

forwarding the QoS report to the network management agent.

11. An apparatus, comprising:

one or more network interfaces to communicate with a low power and lossy network (LLN);

a processor coupled to the network interfaces and adapted to execute one or more processes; and

a memory configured to store a process executable by the processor, the process when executed operable to;

monitor network traffic within a computer network;

dynamically identify one or more paths or individual nodes within the network that specifically require performance monitoring based on one or more traffic criteria triggered by the monitoring, the one or more paths each including one or more path nodes;

request that the one or more path nodes or individual nodes initiate transmission of performance indicia; and

is monitor performance of the one or more paths or individual nodes based on the performance indicia received at the one or more monitoring nodes.

12. The apparatus as in claim 11, wherein the process when executed is further operable to:

classify the dynamically identified one or more paths or individual nodes as necessary for critical and/or heavy network traffic.

13. The apparatus as in claim 11, wherein the process when executed is further operable to:

compare the performance of the one or more paths or individual nodes to a service level agreement (SLA) to ensure that the SLA is fulfilled.

14. The apparatus as in claim 11, wherein the process when executed is further operable to:

send a message to the one or more path nodes, the message including a bloom filter, wherein the message is selected from the group consisting of a routing control plane message, a broadcast message, a multicast message, and a unicast message.

15. The apparatus as in claim 11, wherein the process when executed is further operable to:

send a routing control plane message to the one or more path nodes or individual nodes, the routing control plane message including a bloom filter.

16. The apparatus as in claim 11, wherein the one or more monitoring nodes are a low power and lossy network border router (LBR) or a network sink.

17. The apparatus as in claim 11, wherein information pertaining to the one or more identified path nodes or individual nodes is maintained on the one or more monitoring nodes.

18. The apparatus as in claim 11, wherein the performance indicia are selected from the group consisting of:

jittering, time stamping, delay, received signal strength indication, CPU, battery level, queue length, and any combination thereof.

19. The apparatus as in claim 11, wherein admission state is a metric used by nodes when determining which LLN to join.

20. A tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable media having software encoded thereon, the software when executed by a processor operable to:

monitor network traffic within a computer network;

dynamically identify one or more paths or individual nodes within the network that specifically require performance monitoring based on one or more traffic criteria triggered by the monitoring, the one or more paths each including one or more path nodes;

request that the one or more path nodes or individual nodes initiate transmission of performance indicia; and

monitor performance of the one or more paths or individual nodes based on the performance indicia received at the one or more monitoring nodes.

21. The computer-readable media as in claim 20, wherein the software when executed is further operable to:

classify the dynamically identified one or more paths or individual nodes as necessary for critical and/or heavy network traffic.

22. The computer-readable media as in claim 20, wherein the software when executed is further operable to:

compare the performance of the one or more paths or individual nodes to a service level agreement (SLA) to ensure that the SLA is fulfilled.

23. The computer-readable media as in claim 20, wherein the software when executed is further operable to:

send a message to the one or more path nodes or individual nodes, the message including a bloom filter, wherein the message is selected from the group consisting of a routing control plane message, a broadcast message, a multicast message, and a unicast message.