METHODS AND APPARATUSES FOR NETWORK FLOW ANALYSIS AND CONTROL

• US 20150036533A1
• Filed: 07/31/2013
• Published: 02/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Calix Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Calix Incorporated
• Inventors: Els, Henning, Sodhi, Ari
• Granted Patent: US 9,319,293 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/253
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0829 Packet loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0894 Packet rate

Abstract

Techniques for network packet flow analysis and control are described herein. One example method may include obtaining network topology information corresponding to a plurality of nodes of an access network, receiving communication monitoring messages from two or more of the plurality of nodes, wherein the communication monitoring messages include communication information corresponding to a plurality of communication layers, and determining information loss statistics associated with the plurality of nodes based on the communication monitoring messages and the network topology information.

Claims

1. A method for network monitoring, comprising:

obtaining network topology information corresponding to a plurality of nodes of a network;

receiving communication monitoring messages from at least two of the plurality of nodes, wherein the communication monitoring messages include communication information corresponding to a plurality of communication layers; and

determining information loss statistics associated with the plurality of nodes based on the communication monitoring messages and the network topology information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of communication layers includes layer 1 and the communication information comprises link information.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the link information comprises one or more of an alarm, burstable bandwidth information, a Peak Information Rate (PIR), a Committed Information Rate (CIR), Committed Data Rate (CDR), or an Excess Information Rate (EIR).

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of communication layers includes layer 2 and the communication information comprises one or both of Switch Monitoring (SMON) information or Remote Network Monitoring (RMON) information.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of communication layers includes layer 3 and the communication information comprises Internet Protocol (IP) information.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of communication layers includes layer 7 and the communication information comprises application-specific information.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication information is associated with one or more packet flows.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication information comprises dropped packet information.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein determining information loss statistics comprises:

obtaining expected packet information; and

comparing the expected packet information to actual packet information, wherein the actual packet information is included in the communication information messages.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying the information loss statistics.

11. An apparatus for managing packet flow in a network, comprising one or more modules that are configured to perform the acts of:

obtaining network topology information corresponding to a plurality of nodes of the network;

receiving communication monitoring messages from two or more of the plurality of nodes, wherein the communication monitoring messages include communication information corresponding to a plurality of communication layers; and

determining information loss statistics associated with the plurality of nodes based on the communication monitoring messages and the network topology information.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the one or more modules for determining information loss statistics further are further configured to perform the acts of:

obtaining expected packet information; and

comparing the expected packet information to actual packet information, wherein the actual packet information is included in the communication information messages.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising one or modules for displaying the information loss statistics.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the communication information is associated with one or more packet flows.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the communication information comprises dropped packet information.

16. At least one machine readable medium comprising a plurality of instructions that in response to being executed on a computing device, cause the computing device to perform the acts of:

obtaining network topology information corresponding to a plurality of nodes of a network;

receiving communication monitoring messages from two or more of the plurality of nodes, wherein the communication monitoring messages include communication information corresponding to a plurality of communication layers; and

determining information loss statistics associated with the plurality of nodes based on the communication monitoring messages and the network topology information.

17. The at least one machine readable medium of claim 16, comprising further instructions that in response to being executed on the computing device, cause the computing device to perform the acts of:

obtaining expected packet information; and

comparing the expected packet information to actual packet information, wherein the actual packet information is included in the communication information messages.

18. The at least one machine readable medium of claim 16, comprising further instructions that in response to being executed on the computing device, cause the computing device to perform the acts of displaying the information loss statistics.

19. The at least one machine readable medium of claim 16, wherein the communication information is associated with one or more packet flows.

20. The at least one machine readable medium of claim 16, wherein the communication information comprises dropped packet information.