Tunneling reports for real-time internet protocol media streams

• US 7,936,695 B2
• Filed: 06/12/2007
• Issued: 05/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Oran, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Mattis; Jason E
• Application Number:
  US11/761,679
• Publication Number:
  US 20080285463A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,421 Days
• Field of Search: 370/317, 370/358, 370/246, 370/252, 370/389, 348/14.12, 455/41.1, 455/437
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/65 Network streaming protocols, e.g. real-time transport protocol [RTP] or real-time control protocol [RTCP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS

Abstract

A router, switch, or other network node generates reports that contain packet level statistics and other information for a monitored media stream. The media stream reports reduce the amount of bandwidth typically required for sending monitored media stream information back to a central analysis device. However the computation of other media stream analytics, such as long term statistical averaging or quality metric computation, is performed by the central analysis device to remove some of the processing burden from the individual network nodes.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

operating a central media monitor configured to remotely monitor media streams transferred over network paths established between media stream endpoints in a packet switched network, wherein the central media monitor is outside of the network paths established between the media stream endpoints;

requesting, with the central media monitor, multiple different network devices to monitor different associated portions of one or more of the media streams established between the endpoints and periodically generate media stream reports summarizing real-time packet transportation statistics for transportation of media packets over the different portions of the media streams, wherein the multiple different network devices are intermediary nodes positioned at different locations within the network paths used for transferring the media streams, and wherein the media stream reports summarize the real-time packet transportation statistics for the different associated portions of the network paths;

setting up tunnels between the central media monitor and the multiple different network devices; and

receiving the media stream reports with the central media monitor over the tunnels from the multiple different network devices that each contain the real-time packet transportation statistics for the different associated portions of requested one or more media streams,

wherein an Internet Protocol (IP) address of an interface where the one or more media streams are monitored is indicated as a source address for the media stream reports, wherein an actual source address of the media stream report is different from the indicated source address.

2. The method of claim 1 including:

requesting monitoring of the one or more media streams from a central monitoring device that is not in a native network path of the media streams;

sending monitoring requests to the intermediary nodes for the one or more media streams located between media stream endpoints; and

receiving the media stream reports for each of the one or more media streams at the central monitoring device from the intermediary nodes over the same tunnels, wherein a same tunnel header encapsulates multiple different media stream reports each associated with a different one of the one or more media streams.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the media stream reports comprise at least some packet level statistics that are the same as packet level statistics contained in Real-Time Control Protocol (RTCP) reports that include a number of dropped media packets, media packet jitter, and media packet timestamp information for the different associated portions of the requested one or more media streams.

4. The method according to claim 1, including receiving the media stream reports encapsulated in Real-Time Protocol (RTP) tunnel headers that include a RTP tunnel timestamp and a RTP tunnel sequence number.

5. The method according to claim 4 including:

decapsulating the RTP tunneling headers from the media stream reports; and

performing further analytics on the one or more media streams using the decapsulated media stream reports.

6. The method according to claim 1, including sending messages that identify how frequently the media stream reports are generated.

7. The method according to claim 1, including using a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and Session Description Protocol (SDP) for identifying the media streams for the media stream reports and setting up the tunnels for sending the media stream reports.

8. The method according to claim 7, including sending multiple SDP messages that cause media stream reports for multiple different media streams to be encapsulated in the same tunnel.

9. An apparatus, comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory coupled to the one or more processors comprising instructions executable by the one or more processors, the processors operable when responsive to executing the instructions configured to;

monitor one or more media streams at an intermediary node located at a particular location in a network path, wherein the intermediary node transports media packets in the media streams between two endpoints;

conduct preliminary packet level analysis on the monitored media streams, wherein the packet level analysis identifies media packet statistics associated with transporting the media packets in the media streams over a particular portion of the network path where the intermediary node is located;

generate reports that contain results from the packet level analysis;

establish one or more tunnels between the intermediary node and a network analysis device located outside of the network path;

send the reports over the one or more tunnels to the network analysis device;

include an Internet Protocol (IP) address of a local interface where the media streams are monitored as an indicated source address for the reports, wherein actual source addresses of the reports is different from the indicated source addresses; and

identify an associated media session by including a destination IP address and port of the monitored media streams in the reports.

10. The apparatus according to claim 9 wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

monitor the media streams and generate the reports at an intermediary router or switch node between a media source and one or more media stream receiver endpoints for the media streams encapsulate reports for different media streams in a same tunnel header; and

send the reports at the same time through a particular one of the tunnels to a Network Operation Center (NOC) that is located outside of native network path for the media streams.

11. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the one or more processors encapsulate the media stream reports in a tunnel header that identifies when the reports were generated and in what sequence the reports were encapsulated and sent over the tunnels.

12. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the one or more processors:

generate statistics that identify a number of lost media packets in the media streams, time stamps when the reports were generated, and media stream packet jitter; and

include the generated statistics in the reports that are tunneled to the network analysis device.

13. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the one or more processors:

receive an ingress or egress interface identifier; and

generate media reports for the media streams at an ingress or egress interface corresponding with the ingress or egress identifier.

14. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the one or more processors encapsulate the reports generated for multiple different media streams into a same tunnel header, wherein each of the reports for each of the different media streams is individually encapsulated in an associated Real Time Protocol (RTP) header and then the multiple different encapsulated reports are sent in a same tunnel to the network analysis device.

15. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the one or more processors:

use a Real-Time Protocol (RTP) session IP address for the media streams as the destination address for the report to identify a corresponding RTP session.

16. A method, comprising:

monitoring one or more media streams at multiple different intermediary nodes operating in a same native media stream path between media stream endpoints;

conducting preliminary analytics on the monitored media streams at each of the multiple different intermediary nodes;

generating reports at each of the different intermediate nodes that contain packet-level statistics derived from the preliminary analytics, wherein the packet-level statistics generated by each of the different intermediate nodes are associated with a different location in the same media stream path between the media stream endpoints;

sending the reports from each of the different intermediate nodes to a Network Operation Center (NOC) not located in the native media stream path;

including in each report an indicated source address, wherein the indicated source address is the address of an interface where a corresponding media stream is monitored, wherein an actual source address of the each report is different from the indicated source address, and

wherein the indicated source address indicates whether the interface is an ingress or egress interface; and

explicitly identify in the report an associated media session by including a destination IP address and corresponding port associated with the monitored media stream.

17. The method according to claim 16, including encapsulating the reports in a tunnel and sending the tunneled reports to the NOC.

18. The method according to claim 16 including:

accumulating packet level statistics including a number of lost packets in the media streams, time stamps for the packets in the media streams, or inter-arrival packet jitter in the media streams;

putting the accumulated packet level statistics into the reports; and

tunneling the reports to the NOC.

19. The method according to claim 16 including encapsulating the reports in Real Time Protocol (RTP) headers that identify when the reports were generated and in what sequence the reports were encapsulated and sent to the NOC.

20. The method according to claim 16 including:

using a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) to initiate generation of the reports and tunneling of the generated reports back to the NOC; and

using a Session Description Protocol (SDP) to identify which media streams to monitor and how to tunnel the reports back to the NOC.