Method and apparatus for monitoring a network
First Claim
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1. A method of monitoring a network comprising:
- establishing at least one tunnel between a monitor in a backbone network and each of at least one of a plurality of provider edge routers, wherein the at least one tunnel is established by the monitor;
sending an internet group management protocol join message for a multicast group to the at least one of the plurality of provider edge routers via at least one tunnel of the at least one tunnel, wherein the multicast group is used by a multicast distribution tree of a multicast virtual private network, wherein the join message is sent by the monitor;
transmitting a probe packet via a predetermined tunnel of the at least one tunnel to an ingress provider edge router by utilizing the monitor, wherein the probe packet comprises a source address of the monitor and a destination address comprising a multicast group address of the multicast distribution tree, wherein the probe packet comprises identification information for enabling the monitor to identify the probe packet;
receiving at least one of the transmitted probe packet and a copy of the probe packet at the monitor from a provider edge router of the plurality of edge routers, wherein each of the transmitted probe packet and the copy of the probe packet comprises information for enabling the monitor to identify the provider edge router that transmitted at least one of the transmitted probe packet and the copy; and
joining the monitor to the multicast group, wherein all multicast packets addressed to the multicast group and received at a particular provider edge router are sent to the monitor by an action selected from the group consisting of forwarding and copying, wherein the monitor is configured to identify at least one of the plurality of provider edge routers using information provided by generic routing encapsulation.
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Abstract
Certain exemplary embodiments provide a method that can comprise establishing a tunnel between a monitor and at least one router; sending a message to join a multicast transmission; and/or transmitting a packet via the tunnel to a router. The packet can comprise a source address of the network monitor and a destination address comprising a multicast address.
326 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of monitoring a network comprising:
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establishing at least one tunnel between a monitor in a backbone network and each of at least one of a plurality of provider edge routers, wherein the at least one tunnel is established by the monitor; sending an internet group management protocol join message for a multicast group to the at least one of the plurality of provider edge routers via at least one tunnel of the at least one tunnel, wherein the multicast group is used by a multicast distribution tree of a multicast virtual private network, wherein the join message is sent by the monitor; transmitting a probe packet via a predetermined tunnel of the at least one tunnel to an ingress provider edge router by utilizing the monitor, wherein the probe packet comprises a source address of the monitor and a destination address comprising a multicast group address of the multicast distribution tree, wherein the probe packet comprises identification information for enabling the monitor to identify the probe packet; receiving at least one of the transmitted probe packet and a copy of the probe packet at the monitor from a provider edge router of the plurality of edge routers, wherein each of the transmitted probe packet and the copy of the probe packet comprises information for enabling the monitor to identify the provider edge router that transmitted at least one of the transmitted probe packet and the copy; and joining the monitor to the multicast group, wherein all multicast packets addressed to the multicast group and received at a particular provider edge router are sent to the monitor by an action selected from the group consisting of forwarding and copying, wherein the monitor is configured to identify at least one of the plurality of provider edge routers using information provided by generic routing encapsulation. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method of monitoring a network comprising:
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establishing one or more tunnels between a monitor located in a backbone network and each of at least one of a plurality of provider edge routers, wherein the one or more tunnels are established by the monitor; sending an internet group management protocol join message for a multicast group to the at least one of the plurality of provider edge routers via at least one of the one or more tunnels, the multicast group used by a multicast distribution tree of a multicast virtual private network, wherein the join message is sent by the monitor; transmitting probe packets to the plurality of provider edge routers; receiving at the monitor a plurality of customer network packets via at least one of the one or more tunnels; receiving at least one of the transmitted probe packets and copies of the probe packets from the plurality of provider edge routers; determining a performance metric regarding multicast virtual private network transmission between at least a pair of the plurality of provider edge routers in response to receiving the plurality of customer network packets, wherein the determination is performed by the monitor; and joining the monitor to the multicast group, wherein all multicast packets addressed to the multicast group and received at a particular provider edge router are sent to the monitor by an action selected from the group consisting of forwarding and copying, and wherein the monitor is configured to identify one or more of the plurality of provider edge routers using information provided by generic routing encapsulation. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification