MONITORING AND DIAGNOSTICS IN COMPUTER NETWORKS

• US 20140149572A1
• Filed: 11/28/2012
• Published: 05/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Menezes, Pascal, Hanlon, Bill, Leeb, Gunter, Romano, Anthony, Morrow, Jon
• Application Number:
  US13/686,918
• Publication Number:
  US 20140149572A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/064 involving time analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0686 Additional information in the notification, e.g. enhancement of specific meta-data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/069 using logs of notifications; Post-processing of notifications
• 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 41/5067 Customer-centric QoS measurements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• 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 43/0888 Throughput
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/091 Measuring contribution of individual network components to actual service level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/12 Network monitoring probes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066

Abstract

Various techniques of network monitoring and diagnostics in computer networks are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a method includes configuring a network session between a first client device and a second client device interconnected to each other by the computer network. The configured network session having one or more encrypted attributes. The method also includes transmitting one or more of the encrypted attributes of the configured network session to a network management system for collecting information from one or more network elements connecting the first client device to the second client device during the network session.

Claims

1. A method for network monitoring and diagnostics in a computer network, the method comprising:

signaling to configure a network session between a first client device and a second client device interconnected to each other by the computer network, the configured network session having one or more attributes encrypted during the signaling; and

transmitting one or more of the attributes of the configured network session to a network management system in a decrypted form for collecting information from one or more network elements connecting the first client device to the second client device during the network session.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein configuring the network session includes determining at least one of network addresses of the first and second client devices, a session identifier, a protocol of the session, source and destination transport ports, a media type of the network session, a codec, or a bandwidth estimation of the network session.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein configuring the network session includes transmitting one or more signaling packets between the first and second client devices, the one or more signaling packets having an encrypted payload containing at least one of network addresses of the first and second client devices, a session identifier, a protocol of the session, source and destination transport ports, a media type of the network session, a codec, or a bandwidth estimation of the network session.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein:

configuring the network session includes determining at least one of network addresses of the first and second client devices, a session identifier, a protocol of the session, source and destination transport ports, a media type of the network session, a codec, or a bandwidth estimation of the network session, at least one of which is encrypted; and

transmitting one or more of the attributes includes transmitting the one or more of the determined network addresses of the first and second client devices, session identifier, protocol of the session, source and destination transport ports, media type of the network session, codec, or bandwidth estimation of the network session to the network management system.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein:

configuring the network session includes transmitting one or more signaling packets between the first and second client devices, the one or more signaling packets having an encrypted payload containing at least one of network addresses of the first and second client devices, a session identifier, a protocol of the session, source and destination transport ports, a media type of the network session, a codec, or a bandwidth estimation of the network session; and

transmitting one or more of the attributes includes transmitting, in a decrypted form, the one or more of the determined network addresses of the first and second client devices, session identifier, protocol of the session, source and destination transport ports, media type of the network session, codec, or bandwidth estimation of the network session to the network management system.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising notifying the network management system of at least one of a start, an update, or an end of the network session.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the network session includes at least a voice session, a video session, or an application sharing session; and

the method further includes notifying the network management system of a performance degradation in the network session and at least one of

a delay value;

a jitter value;

a packet loss value;

or

a healer ratio value of the network session.

8. A method for network monitoring and diagnostics in a computer network, the method comprising:

receiving one or more of the attributes of a configured network session between a first client device and a second client device, at least one of the attributes is encrypted during configuration of the network session;

configuring a network path that connects the first client device to the second client device based on the received one or more of the attributes of the configured network session, the network path having one or more network elements; and

collecting information from the one or more network elements along the network path during the network session.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising associating the collected information with the network session based on the received one or more of the attributes of the network session.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein receiving one or more of the attributes includes receiving at least one of network addresses of the first and second client devices, a session identifier, a protocol of the session, source and destination transport ports, a media type of the network session, a codec, or a bandwidth estimation of the network session.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein collecting information includes collecting and storing at least one of a configuration or operation parameter of the one or more network elements with a corresponding timestamp.

12. The method of claim 8 wherein collecting information includes collecting at least one of a traffic throughput, a class of service, or a value of dropped packet at each of the one or more network elements with a corresponding timestamp.

13. The method of claim 8 wherein collecting information includes collecting at least one of a traffic throughput, a class of service, or a value of dropped packet at each of the one or more network elements and storing the collected at least one of traffic throughput, class of service, or value of dropped packet at each of the one or more network elements with a timestamp.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising designating at least some of the collected information from the one or more network elements as data traffic for the network session, at least a portion of the data traffic being encrypted.

15. The method of claim 8 wherein:

collecting information includes collecting and storing at least one of a configuration or operation parameter of the one or more network elements with a corresponding timestamp;

the method further includes receiving a notification indicating a performance degradation of the network session, the performance degradation having an error timestamp; and

associating the collected information includes correlating the collected configuration or operation parameter to the received notification indicating the performance degradation in the network session based on the error timestamp and the timestamps of the configuration or operation parameter.

16. The method of claim 8 wherein:

collecting information includes collecting and storing at least one of a configuration or operation parameter of the one or more network elements with a corresponding timestamp;

the method further includes receiving a notification indicating a performance degradation of the network session, the performance degradation having an error timestamp;

associating the collected information includes, based on the error timestamp and the timestamps of the configuration or operation parameter, comparing the collected configuration or operation parameter to a corresponding range; and

indicating a network error if a value of the collected configuration or operation parameter is not within the corresponding range.

17. A computer system for network monitoring and diagnostics in a computer network, the method comprising:

a server configured to establish a network session between a first client device and a second client device interconnected to each other by the computer network, the configured network session having one or more attributes encrypted during establishing the network session;

a network management system coupled to the server, the network management system being configured to

receive one or more of the attributes of the established network session between the first client device and the second client device;

determine a network path connecting the first client device to the second client device based on the received one or more of the attributes of the network session, the network path having one or more network elements interconnecting the first and second client devices;

collect configuration and/or operation information from the one or more network elements during the network session; and

associate the collected configuration and/or operation information with the network session based on the received one or more of the attributes of the network session.

18. The computer system of claim 17 wherein the network management system is configured to receive at least one of network addresses of the first and second client devices, a session identifier, a protocol of the session, source and destination transport ports, a media type of the network session, a codec, or a bandwidth estimation of the network session from the server.

19. The computer system of claim 17 wherein:

the server is also configured to transmit a notification to the network management system, the notification indicating a performance degradation of the network session, the performance degradation having an error timestamp;

the network management system is configured to;

collect and store at least one of a configuration or operation parameter of the one or more network elements with a corresponding timestamp; and

correlate the collected configuration or operation parameter to the received notification indicating the performance degradation in the network session based on the error timestamp and the timestamps of the configuration or operation parameter.

20. The computer system of claim 17 wherein:

the server is also configured to transmit a notification to the network management system, the notification indicating a performance degradation of the network session, the performance degradation having an error timestamp;

the network management system is configured to;

collect and store at least one of a configuration or operation parameter of the one or more network elements with a corresponding timestamp;

based on the error timestamp and the timestamps of the configuration or operation parameter, compare the collected configuration or operation parameter to a corresponding range; and

indicate a network error if a value of the collected configuration or operation parameter is not within the corresponding range.