Method, computer program product, and apparatus for collecting service level agreement statistics in a communication network

• US 6,366,563 B1
• Filed: 12/22/1999
• Issued: 04/02/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: MCI WorldCom, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Osborne, Joshua, Weldon, Jedrick J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Chau
• Assistant Examiner(s): TRINH, DUNG N
• Application Number:
  US09/469,507
• Time in Patent Office: 832 Days
• Field of Search: 370/252, 370/241, 370/242, 370/248, 370/401, 370/249
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4641 Virtual LANs, VLANs, e.g. virtual private networks [VPN] LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone H04L12/462; encapsulation techniques H04L12/4633; routing of packets H04L45/00; packet switches H04L49/00; virtual private networks for security H04L63/0272
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/34 Signalling channels for network management communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5012 determining service availability, e.g. which services are available at a certain point in time
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/50 Testing arrangements

Abstract

A probing router is used at a source site of a virtual private network. In-band probing operations are performed by components within the probing router, using processing resources available from a router engine portion of the probing router. In this way, changes in the network and service level agreement statistic collection processes may be quickly and easily accommodated within the probing router. Furthermore, the probing router communicates the probe message through an in-band communication channel so as to provide a direct measurement of service level data for the channel used for communicating information between the source site and a destination site.

Claims

1. A method collecting network performance statistics, comprising steps of:

preparing a probe message with a probing router;

sending said probe message over an in-band communication channel;

measuring a propagation time for said probe message to reach a predetermined location;

transmitting a service level agreement statistic from a probing router to a network operation center;

combining at said network operation center said service level agreement statistic with other service level agreement statistics from other in-band channels to provide a compilation of service level agreement statistics; and

presenting said compilation of service level agreement statistics to a user of a virtual private network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said sending step comprises sending said probe message in the in-band communications channel of a virtual private network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

said preparing step comprises including in said probe message a time stamp, T1, indicative of when said probe message is sent in said sending step; and

said measuring step includes

receiving a reply probe message sent from a destination probing router at a second time, T2, said destination probing router being located at said predetermined location, and

extracting a remote latency indicator from said reply probe message, said remote latency indicator representing an amount of time between when said destination probing router received said probe message and when said destination probing router sent said reply probe message.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising a step of:

calculating a service level agreement statistic from said propagation time.

5. A probing router comprising:

a bus;

a routing engine coupled to the bus and configured to forward packets to a communications network;

a communication network port coupled to the bus and configured to connect to a communication network and transmit a probe message and the packets therethrough;

a probe mechanism configured to generate and to send the probe message through said communication network port to the communication network at a time T1, wherein said probe mechanism is configured to receive a reply probe message at a second time, T2, sent by a destination router in response to receiving said probe message with a remote latency indicator therein so that service level agreement characteristics may subsequently be derived by comparing T1, T2 and the remote latency indicator; and

a memory, wherein the probe mechanism is configured to identify and to store in the memory the service level agreement characteristics, said probe mechanism sending at least one of T1, T2, and the remote latency indicator to a probe poller device that calculates service level agreement statistics, said probe mechanism being configured to calculate a round trip time from T1, T2, and the remote latency indicator for a predetermined number of probing cycles and being configured to send the round trip time to the probe poller device.

6. The probing router of claim 5, wherein:

said probe mechanism being configured to save an indication that a packet is lost for a probing cycle when said probe mechanism determines that the round trip time exceeds a predetermined threshold.