REMOTE PROBING FOR REMOTE QUALITY OF SERVICE MONITORING

• US 20140219114A1
• Filed: 06/25/2013
• Published: 08/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/05/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• 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., Mermoud, Grgory
• Granted Patent: US 9,385,933 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route

Abstract

In one embodiment, a targeted node in a computer network receives a probe generation request (PGR), and in response, generates a link-local multicast PGR (PGR-Local) carrying instructions for generating probes based on the PGR. The targeted node then transmits the PGR-Local to neighbors of the targeted node to cause one or more of the neighbors to generate and transmit probes to a collection device in the computer network according to the PGR-Local instructions. In another embodiment, a particular node in a computer network receives a link-local multicast probe generation request (PGR-Local) from a targeted node in the computer network, the targeted node having received the PGR-Local from a remote device, and determines how to generate probes based on instructions carried within the PGR-Local before sending one or more probes to a collection device in the computer network according to the PGR-Local instructions.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a targeted node in a computer network, a probe generation request (PGR);

in response, generating a link-local multicast PGR (PGR-Local) carrying instructions for generating probes based on the PGR; and

transmitting the PGR-Local to neighbors of the targeted node to cause one or more of the neighbors to generate and transmit probes to a collection device in the computer network according to the PGR-Local instructions.

2. The method as in claim 1, wherein the PGR is received at the targeted node as a tunneled PGR-Local, and wherein generating the PGR-Local comprises decapsulating the tunneled PGR-Local.

3. The method as in claim 1, wherein the PGR comprises one or more probing instructions selected from a group consisting of:

an active time range for probing;

a number of probe trains;

a number of probes per probe train;

a class of traffic to use for probes;

a ratio of traffic to apply sampling; and

an indication of per-link or end-to-end delay measurement.

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

identifying a subset of the neighbors to generate and transmit probes in the PGR-Local.

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

receiving acknowledgments from one or more the neighbors for the PGR-Local; and

in response to an insufficient number of acknowledgments, transmitting the PGR-Local to the neighbors with an incremented time-to-live (TTL).

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

receiving acknowledgments from one or more the neighbors for the PGR-Local; and

in response to an insufficient number of acknowledgments, unicasting the PGR-Local to neighbors from which an acknowledgment was not received.

7. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a particular node in a computer network, a link-local multicast probe generation request (PGR-Local) from a targeted node in the computer network, the targeted node having received the PGR-Local from a remote device;

determining how to generate probes based on instructions carried within the PGR-Local; and

sending one or more probes to a collection device in the computer network according to the PGR-Local instructions.

8. The method as in claim 7, wherein the PGR-Local comprises one or more probing instructions selected from a group consisting of:

an active time range for probing;

a number of probe trains;

a number of probes per probe train;

a class of traffic to use for probes;

a ratio of traffic to apply sampling; and

an indication of per-link or end-to-end delay measurement.

9. The method as in claim 7, wherein the PGR-Local identifies a subset of the neighbors to generate and transmit probes, the method further comprising:

determining whether the particular node is one of the subset of the neighbors prior to generating and transmitting probes.

10. The method as in claim 7, wherein the probes are one or both of explicit probes or piggybacked information on data traffic.

11. The method as in claim 7, further comprising:

sending the one or more probes at a time inversely proportional to a distance of the particular node from the collection device; and

aggregating any received probes at the particular node prior to sending the one or more probes from the particular node.

12. The method as in claim 7, further comprising:

sending an acknowledgment for the PGR-Local to the targeted node.

13. An apparatus, comprising:

one or more network interfaces to communicate with a computer network;

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;

receive, as a targeted node in a computer network, a probe generation request (PGR);

in response, generate a link-local multicast PGR (PGR-Local) carrying instructions for generating probes based on the PGR; and

transmit the PGR-Local to neighbors of the targeted node to cause one or more of the neighbors to generate and transmit probes to a collection device in the computer network according to the PGR-Local instructions.

14. The apparatus as in claim 13, wherein the PGR is received at the targeted node as a tunneled PGR-Local, and wherein generating the PGR-Local comprises decapsulating the tunneled PGR-Local.

15. The apparatus as in claim 13, wherein the PGR comprises one or more probing instructions selected from a group consisting of:

an active time range for probing;

a number of probe trains;

a number of probes per probe train;

a class of traffic to use for probes;

a ratio of traffic to apply sampling; and

an indication of per-link or end-to-end delay measurement.

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

identify a subset of the neighbors to generate and transmit probes in the PGR-Local.

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

receive acknowledgments from one or more the neighbors for the PGR-Local; and

in response to an insufficient number of acknowledgments, transmit the PGR-Local to the neighbors with an incremented time-to-live (TTL).

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

receive acknowledgments from one or more the neighbors for the PGR-Local; and

in response to an insufficient number of acknowledgments, unicast the PGR-Local to neighbors from which an acknowledgment was not received.

19. An apparatus, comprising:

one or more network interfaces to communicate with a computer network;

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;

receive, as a particular node in a computer network, a link-local multicast probe generation request (PGR-Local) from a targeted node in the computer network, the targeted node having received the PGR-Local from a remote device;

determine how to generate probes based on instructions carried within the PGR-Local; and

send one or more probes to a collection device in the computer network according to the PGR-Local instructions.

20. The apparatus as in claim 19, wherein the PGR-Local comprises one or more probing instructions selected from a group consisting of:

an active time range for probing;

a number of probe trains;

a number of probes per probe train;

a class of traffic to use for probes;

a ratio of traffic to apply sampling; and

an indication of per-link or end-to-end delay measurement.

21. The apparatus as in claim 19, wherein the PGR-Local identifies a subset of the neighbors to generate and transmit probes, and wherein the process when executed is further operable to:

determine whether the particular node is one of the subset of the neighbors prior to generating and transmitting probes.

22. The apparatus as in claim 19, wherein the probes are one or both of explicit probes or piggybacked information on data traffic.

23. The apparatus as in claim 19, wherein the process when executed is further operable to:

send the one or more probes at a time inversely proportional to a distance of the particular node from the collection device; and

aggregate any received probes at the particular node prior to sending the one or more probes from the particular node.

24. The apparatus as in claim 19, wherein the process when executed is further operable to:

send an acknowledgment for the PGR-Local to the targeted node.