Packet error rate measurements by distributed controllers
First Claim
1. An error monitoring arrangement for measuring the rate of errors occurring in the transmission of packets, comprises:
- means for generating error signals upon detection of errors in ones of said packets;
means responsive to said error signals for calculating present error signals representing an error rate;
means for generating a control signal upon receipt of a predetermined number of packets;
means for storing reference error signals;
means cooperating with said calculating means and said storing means for defining error rate thresholds; and
means cooperating with said defining means, said calculating means, and said storing means in response to said control signal for indicating error rate excursions beyond said thresholds by said present error signals from said reference error signals.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A trunk controller and processor arrangement for monitoring the error rate occurring in packets received from a high speed trunk. Within a packet switching system, packets comprising logical addresses, and voice/data information are communicated through the system by packet switching networks which are interconnected by high speed digital trunks with each of the latter being directly terminated on both ends by trunk controllers. During initial call setup of a particular call, central processors associated with each network in the desired route store the necessary logical to physical address information in the controllers which perform all logical to physical address translation on subsequent packets of the call. Each network comprises stages of switching nodes which are responsive to the physical address associated with a packet by a controller to communicate that packet to a designated subsequent node. Each trunk controller has an error rate monitoring circuit for measuring the error rate occurring in packets during transmission over the attached trunk. The error rate circuit notifies the associated processor when error rate excursions increase or decrease in excess of a multitude of processor specified percentages of error rate.
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Citations
28 Claims
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1. An error monitoring arrangement for measuring the rate of errors occurring in the transmission of packets, comprises:
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means for generating error signals upon detection of errors in ones of said packets; means responsive to said error signals for calculating present error signals representing an error rate; means for generating a control signal upon receipt of a predetermined number of packets; means for storing reference error signals; means cooperating with said calculating means and said storing means for defining error rate thresholds; and means cooperating with said defining means, said calculating means, and said storing means in response to said control signal for indicating error rate excursions beyond said thresholds by said present error signals from said reference error signals. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. An error monitoring arrangement for measuring the rate of errors occurring in the transmission of packets, and comprises:
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means for generating error signals upon receipt of incorrect ones of said packets; means for generating valid packet signals upon receipt of correct ones of said packets; means responsive to said valid packet signals and said error signals for generating a control signal upon a receipt of a predetermined number of packets; means responsive to said error signals for calculating a first set of signals representing the error rate occurring in said predetermined number of packets; means for storing a second set of signals representing a reference error rate; and means responsive to subsets of signals representing said first and second sets of signals and said control signal for generating a report signal indicating excursions of said calculated error rate from said reference error rate. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A packet switching system for communicating a plurality of packets having a packet switching network, transmission means and interface means interconnecting said transmission means and said switching network, said interface means comprises:
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means for generating error signals upon receipt of incorrect ones of said packets; means for generating valid packet signals upon receipt of correct ones of said packets; means responsive to said valid packet signals and said error signals for generating a control signal upon a receipt of a predetermined number of packets; means responsive to said error signals for calculating a first set of signals representing the error rate occurring in said predetermined number of packets; means for storing a second set of signals representing a reference error rate; means responsive to subsets of signals representing said first and second sets of signals and said control signal for generating a report signal indicating excursions of the calculated error rate from said reference error rate. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. An error monitoring arrangement for measuring the rate of errors occurring in the transmission of packets, and comprises:
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means responsive to incorrect ones of a predetermined number of packets for calculating present error signals representing an error rate; means for storing reference error signals; means for deriving a control signal upon receipt of said predetermined number of packets; means cooperating with said calculating means and said storing means for defining error rate thresholds; and means cooperating with said defining means, said calculating means, and said storing means in response to said control signal for indicating error rate excursions beyond said thresholds by said present error signals from said reference error signals. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22)
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23. An error monitoring arrangement for measuring the rate of errors occurring in the transmission of packets, and comprises:
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means for generating error signals upon receipt of incorrect ones of said packets; means for generating valid packet signals upon receipt of correct ones of said packets; means responsive to said valid packet signals and said error signals for generating a control signal upon a receipt of a predetermined number of packets; accumulator means incremented in response to each of said error signals for calculating signals representing the number of packets received in error during said predetermined number of packets; a present error register responsive to said control signal for storing signals of said accumulator means as a first set of signals; a previous error register for storing a second set of signals representing a previous error rate for a previous predetermined number of packets; register means for storing a set of mask signals representing a plurality of predetermined thresholds; circuit means responsive to said first and second sets of signals and stored mask signals for logically generating a first and second subsets of signals; and comparator means responsive to said subsets of signals for generating a report signal to indicate error rate excursions beyond said thresholds; and said previous error register comprising means responsive to said control signal and a predetermined one of rate signals for storing the contents of said present time register as said second set of signals.
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24. A method of error rate monitoring in a packet switching system for communicating a plurality of packets having a packet switching network, transmission means, and an interface facility interconnecting said transmission means and said switching network, and comprises the steps:
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detecting receipt of incorrect ones of said packets by said interface facility; detecting receipt of correct ones of said packets by said interface facility; calculating a predetermined number of packets in response to said detection of correct and incorrect packets by said interface facility; calculating a first set of signals representing the error rate occurring in said predetermined number of packets in response to said detection of said incorrect ones of said packets by said interface facility; storing a second set of signals representing a reference error rate by said interface facility; selecting a first and second subsets of signals from said first and second sets of signals by said interface facility, respectively; comparing said first and second subsets of selected signals by said interface facility; and generating a report signal indicating excursions of said calculated error rate beyond said reference error rate by said interface facility upon said first and second subsets of selected signals not being equal. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28)
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Specification