FINE-GRAINED NETWORK MONITORING

• US 20150326457A1
• Filed: 05/08/2014
• Published: 11/12/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Wu, Haitao, Guo, Chuanxiong, Maltz, David A., Yuan, Lihua, Zhang, Yongguang
• Granted Patent: US 11,539,611 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0811 by checking connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/12 Network monitoring probes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/50 Testing arrangements

Abstract

In some cases, a network monitoring system may determine an operating or health condition of a node or connection link in a network (e.g., a datacenter network) by preparing an encapsulated data packet according to a tunneling protocol. Depending on a result of routing the encapsulated data packet, the network monitoring system determines whether the node or connection link is functioning normally or is experiencing an issue such as overloading or malfunctioning.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

under control of one or more processors,

transmitting a data packet to a destination node, the data packet comprising information of a specific node or path that the data packet is to be routed through; and

determining a health condition of the specific node or path based at least in part on a result of the transmitting of the data packet.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising encapsulating at least a first packet into a second packet to form the transmitted data packet.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the encapsulating further comprises including address information of the specific node in a packet header of the second packet.

4. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein the address information comprises a global address or a local address of the specific node, the global address corresponding to an address routable in a network including the specific node and the destination node, and the local address corresponding to an address reachable by one or more neighbors of the specific node.

5. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein transmitting the data packet comprises transmitting the data packet to an intermediate node according to destination address information included in a packet header of the second packet, the intermediate node decapsulating the second packet to obtain the first packet and the intermediate node forwarding the first packet to another node according to destination address information included in a packet header of the first packet.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the information of the specific node or path comprises number of hops that the data packet is traversed from a node that sends the data packet to the specific node or path.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising determining that the specific node or path is functioning when the result of the transmitting of the data packet corresponds to a success in a receiving of the data packet within a predetermined time threshold at the destination node.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the destination node comprises a node from which the data packet is sent, and wherein the method further comprises receiving the data packet at the node from which the data packet sent.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the destination node is different from a node from which the data packet is sent.

10. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the specific node comprises a switch or a first computing device and the destination node comprises a second computing device.

11. One or more computer-readable media storing executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising:

determining one or more specific nodes or paths of which operation conditions are to be analyzed; and

iteratively encapsulating one or more respective data packets corresponding to the one or more specific nodes or paths to form a test data packet.

12. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 11, wherein iteratively encapsulating the one or more respective data packets comprises iteratively setting destination addresses of the one or more specific nodes or paths in packet headers of the one or more respective data packets.

13. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 12, further comprising determining whether a global address, a local address or a combination thereof is used as a destination address of a specific node or path in a packet header of a respective data packet of the specific node or path.

14. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 11, the acts further comprising adding information of number of hops that the test data packet is traversed from a node that sends the test data packet to at least one of the one or more specific nodes or paths.

15. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 11, the acts further comprising transmitting the test data packet to a destination node.

16. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 11, wherein a receiving node that the test data packet is destined to the same as a sending node from which the test data packet is originated, and the acts further comprise:

sending out the test data packet; and

determining a health condition of the one or more specific nodes or paths based at least in part on whether the test data packet is received.

17. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 16, the acts further comprising determining that at least one of the one or more specific nodes or paths is susceptible to malfunctioning or overloading if failing to receive the test data packet within a predetermined time threshold.

18. A system comprising:

one or more processors;

memory storing executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising;

including a first data packet within a second data packet, a packet header of the second data packet comprising information associated with a specific node of which operating condition is to be determined and a packet header of the first data packet comprising information associated with a destination node that determines the operating condition of the specific node; and

sending out the second data packet.

19. The system as recited in claim 18, wherein the information associated with the specific node comprises a global address or a local address of the specific node.

20. The system as recited in claim 18, the acts further comprising including the second data packet within a third data packet, a packet header of the third data packet comprising information associated with another specific node of which operating condition is to be determined.