Automatic capture of the network delay components

• US 9,413,625 B2
• Filed: 02/01/2012
• Issued: 08/09/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Bui, Dinh Thai, Le Pallec, Michel
• Primary Examiner(s): Mattis, Jason
• Application Number:
  US13/982,622
• Publication Number:
  US 20140092922A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,651 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/0667 Bidirectional timestamps, e.g. NTP or PTP for compensation of clock drift and for compensation of propagation delays arrangements for monitoring round trip delays in packet switching networks H04L43/0864
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/0685 Clock or time synchronisation in a node; Intranode synchronisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0858 One way delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/50 Testing arrangements

Abstract

In a method for monitoring the residence time across nodes of a communication network including a transparent clock-based synchronization architecture, the method includes configuring and generating a tunable and traceable packet dedicated to delay measurements. The method further includes measuring the packet resident time across a network node by a transparent clock, storing, at the level of the network node, the measured residence time, and retrieving the stored residence time by a Network protocol.

Claims

1. A method for monitoring a residence time across a plurality of nodes of a communication network including a transparent clock based synchronization architecture according to Precision Time Protocol release 2 (PTPV2), said method comprising:

configuring and generating a modified PTPV2 packet, the modified PTPV2 packet being used for at least measuring the residence time but is not used for a synchronization purpose;

measuring the residence time of the modified PTPV2 packet across a at least one node of the plurality of nodes, by a transparent clock;

storing the measured residence time; and

retrieving the stored residence time using a network protocol.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

parameterizing the modified PTPV2 packet.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the parameterizing parameterizes the modified PTPV2 packet with respect to at least a parameter of a delay-sensitive application packet.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the parameter is a quality of service (QoS).

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the parameter is a packet length.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the modified PTPV2 packet is a modified PTPV2 delay request packet.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the storing stores the measured residence time in a centralized storage.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing the measured residence time.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

multicast sending of the modified PTPV2 packet.

10. A network node supported by a transparent clock, the network node comprising:

a memory including computer readable instructions stored therein; and

a processor configured to execute the computer readable instructions to,

configure and generate a modified Precision Time Protocol release 2 (PTPV2) packet, the modified PTPV2 packet being used for at least measuring a residence time but is not used for a synchronization purpose;

measure the residence time of the modified PTPV2 packet across said network node, using the transparent clock;

store the measured residence time; and

retrieve the stored residence time using a network protocol.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the transparent clock includes an IEEE 1588 version 2 Peer-to-Peer Transparent Clock.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the transparent clock includes an IEEE 1588 Version 2 end-to-end Transparent Clock.

13. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer-readable instructions which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to,

configure and generate a modified Precision Time Protocol release 2 (PTPV2) packet, the modified PTPV2 packet being used for at least measuring a residence time but is not used for a synchronization purpose;

measure the residence time of the modified PTPV2 packet across at least one node of a plurality of nodes of a communication network, by a transparent clock;

store the measured residence time; and

retrieve the stored residence time using a network protocol.