Method and apparatus for measurement-based conformance testing of service level agreements in networks

• US 6,363,053 B1
• Filed: 02/08/1999
• Issued: 03/26/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 02/08/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Uniloc 2017 LLC (FIG LLC (d/b/a Fortress Investment Group LLC))
• Original Assignee: 3Com Corporation (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Grabiec, Jacek A., Borella, Michael S., Sidhu, Ikhlaq S., Schuster, Guido M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Olms, Douglas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pizarro, Ricardo M.
• Application Number:
  US09/246,606
• Time in Patent Office: 1,142 Days
• Field of Search: 370/229, 370/230, 370/232, 370/252, 370/233, 370/465, 370/477, 370/254, 370/400, 370/409, 370/401, 370/259, 370/351, 709/227
• US Class Current: 370/230
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• 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 43/50 Testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/24 Traffic characterised by specific attributes, e.g. priority or QoS

Abstract

A method and apparatus for measurement-based conformance testing of service level agreements in networks. The method includes first collecting quality of service information from network traffic over a plurality of network nodes. Then, the collected quality of service information is compared to a plurality of specified quality of service levels. A plurality of possible virtual quality of service pathways through a plurality of network nodes is provided, based on the compared quality of service information. One embodiment of the method includes the additional step of creating a virtual connection using the compared quality of service information. In another embodiment of the method, the step of collecting quality of service information from network traffic over a plurality of network nodes includes first transmitting test traffic from a source to a destination over a plurality of network nodes. The transmitted test traffic is then received at the destination, and quality of service information is identified by comparing characteristics of the test traffic transmitted by the source to characteristics of the test traffic received by the destination.

Claims

1. In a computer network, a method of testing a virtual connection for conformance to a service level agreement, comprising the following steps:

collecting quality of service information from network traffic over a plurality of network nodes, including;

transmitting test traffic from a source to a destination over said plurality of network nodes,

receiving the transmitted test traffic at the destination, and

identifying said quality of service information by comparing characteristics of the test traffic transmitted by the source to characteristics of the test traffic received by the destination,

comparing the collected quality of service information to a plurality of specified quality of service levels; and

providing a plurality of possible virtual quality of service pathways through said plurality of network nodes based on the compared quality of service information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein characteristics of the test traffic transmitted by the source include a transmission timestamp and characteristics of the test traffic received by the destination include a receipt timestamp.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the source is clock-synchronized with the destination.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein a GPS system is used to synchronize a source timestamp clock with a destination timestamp clock.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein characteristics of the test traffic transmitted by the source include a packet transmission count and characteristics of the test traffic received by the destination include a packet receipt count.

6. The method of claim 1 being executed by a computer readable medium having stored therein instructions for causing a processing unit to execute said method.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising creating a virtual connection using the compared quality of service information.

8. In a computer network, a method of testing a virtual connection for conformance to a service level agreement, comprising the following steps:

collecting quality of service information from network traffic over a first plurality of network nodes, including;

transmitting test traffic from a source port to an echo port over a first plurality of network nodes, whereupon the echo port transmits echo traffic back to the source port over a second plurality of network nodes, and wherein the echo traffic corresponds to the test traffic,

receiving the echo traffic at the source port, and

identifying said quality of service information by comparing characteristics of the test traffic to characteristics of the echo traffic;

comparing the collected quality of service information to a plurality of specified quality of service levels; and

providing a plurality of possible virtual quality of service pathways through said first plurality of network nodes based on the compared quality of service information.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein characteristics of the test traffic include a transmission timestamp stamped at the source port upon transmission of the test traffic and characteristics of the echo traffic include a receipt timestamp stamped at the source port upon receipt of the echo traffic.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein characteristics of the test traffic include a packet transmission count and characteristics of the echo traffic include a packet receipt count.

11. The method of claim 8 being executed by a computer readable medium having stored therein instructions for causing a processing unit to execute said method.

12. The method of claim 8 further comprising creating a virtual connection using the compared quality of service information.