Method and apparatus for augmenting TWAMP

• US 9,485,165 B2
• Filed: 03/12/2013
• Issued: 11/01/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Allan, David Ian, Chakrabarti, Samita
• Primary Examiner(s): Haile, Awet
• Assistant Examiner(s): KRUEGER, KENT K
• Application Number:
  US13/798,016
• Publication Number:
  US 20140169183A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,330 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/122 by minimising distances, e.g. by selecting a route with minimum of number of hops
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/24 Multipath
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/26 Route discovery packet
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/7453 using hashing

Abstract

According to another embodiment of the invention, TWAMP path discovery is performed to determine a sequence of IP addresses of a forward direction TWAMP E2E path to be traversed by two different TWAMP test sessions between a Sender and a Reflector. Then, additional TWAMP test request packets are transmitted for the different TWAMP test sessions; and TWAMP test reply messages are received responsive to respective ones of the TWAMP test request packets. Responsive to the TWAMP test reply messages, a PM is determined that is specific to the different sequences of IP addresses of the forward direction TWAMP E2E paths traversed by the two different TWAMP test sessions.

Claims

1. A method in a network device for performing Two-Way Active Measurement Protocol (TWAMP) based path discovery, the method comprising the steps of:

setting a current hopcount to an initial value of one for a TWAMP test session with a destination Internet Protocol (IP) address of another network device that is the reflector for the TWAMP test session;

transmitting, by the network device that is the sender for the TWAMP test session, a TWAMP test request packet with the destination IP address and with a hopcount in the TWAMP test request packet set to the current hopcount;

receiving an Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) time exceeded message by the network device from a transit node;

determining that the transit node is the current hopcount away from the network device on a TWAMP end-to-end (E2E) path between the sender and reflector of the TWAMP test session being discovered;

adding an IP address of the transit node received in the ICMP time exceeded message to a sequence of IP addresses representing a forward direction path in a set of alternate paths of the TWAMP E2E path;

repeating the step of transmitting with the current hopcount incremented by one as compared to the immediately preceding TWAMP test request packet for the TWAMP test session,

repeating the method to determine another sequence of IP addresses representing another forward direction path in the set of alternate paths of the TWAMP E2E path;

utilizing a corresponding path in the set of alternate paths of the TWAMP E2E path to generate performance metrics based on TWAMP test request and TWAMP test reply messages utilizing the corresponding path, where the corresponding path is a path in the set of alternate paths traversed by the TWAMP test request or the TWAMP test reply message; and

storing the performance metrics in a TWAMP path table for each of the set of alternate paths with performance metrics generated from the respective path in the set of alternate paths.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting includes the network device making a routing decision between two other nodes for a first hop, wherein the routing decision is Equal Cost Multi Path (ECMP) based.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein one IP address in the sequence of IP addresses is of a network device acting as an Equal Cost Multi Path (ECMP) point using IP based hashing to make forwarding decisions.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a TWAMP test reply message sent from the another network device;

transmitting additional TWAMP test request packets for the TWAMP test session and receiving additional TWAMP test reply messages responsive to respective ones of the additional TWAMP test request packets; and

determining, responsive to the TWAMP test reply messages, a performance measurement (PM) that is specific to the sequence of IP addresses learned from the ICMP time exceeded messages.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing in the TWAMP path table, a TWAMP test session identifier (ID) and the sequence of IP addresses representing the forward direction path of the TWAMP E2E path, where the TWAMP test session ID identifies the TWAMP session by information affecting the routing of TWAMP test session data over a network implementing equal cost multi path (ECMP).

6. An apparatus to discover Two-Way Active Measurement Protocol (TWAMP) end-to-end (E2E) paths, the apparatus comprising:

a network device to act as a Sender of a TWAMP E2E path having as a Reflector another network device more than one hopcount away, the network device comprising;

a set of one or more processors; and

a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium containing code,

which when executed by the set of one or more processors, causes the network device to,

transmit, to a destination Internet Protocol (IP) address of the another network device for a TWAMP test session, a series of TWAMP test request packets with hopcounts starting at 1 and increasing until a TWAMP test reply message is received from the another network device acting as the Reflector of the TWAMP E2E path,

receive respective Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) time exceeded messages, each including an Internet Protocol (IP) address of a network interface, responsive to each of the TWAMP test request packets transmitted with hopcounts that are less than the number of hopcounts required to reach the another network device, wherein the IP addresses placed in order of the series of TWAMP test request packets form a sequence of IP addresses representing a forward direction path in a set of alternate paths of the TWAMP E2Epath,

repeat the code to determine another sequence of IP addresses representing another forward direction path in the set of alternate paths of the TWAMP E2E path,

utilize a corresponding path in the set of alternate paths in the TWAMP E2E path to generate performance metrics based on TWAMP test request and TWAMP test reply messages utilizing the corresponding path, where the corresponding path is a path in the set of alternate paths traversed by the TWAMP test request or the TWAMP test reply message, and

store the performance metrics in a TWAMP path table for each of the set of alternate paths with performance metrics generated from the respective path in the set of alternate paths.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the network device is further caused to:

transmit and receive with the another network device another TWAMP test request packet and TWAMP test reply message, and

determine a performance measurement (PM) based on the another TWAMP test reply message.

8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the network device includes:

an IP performance measurement (PM) Sender controller module; and

a TWAMP module including,

a TWAMP communication module to generate and cause the transmission of the TWAMP test request packets, to be provided the respective ICMP time exceeded messages and first TWAMP test reply message, to record the sequence of IP addresses in the forward direction path of the TWAMP E2E path responsive to the ICMP time exceeded messages and the first TWAMP test reply message, and to provide a TWAMP performance measurement (PM) to the IP PM Sender controller module for the TWAMP E2E path.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the IP PM Sender controller module tracks intervals to initiate the TWAMP communication module to redo the TWAMP path discovery.

10. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein:

the network device is also to act as the Sender of another forward direction path of the set of alternate paths of the TWAMP E2E path with the another network device, and

where there is an intermediate network device in the forward direction path and another forward direction path of the set of alternate paths of the TWAMP E2E path acting as an ECMP point causes a forwarding decision that yields different sequences of IP addresses for the forward direction path and another forward direction path of the set of alternate paths of the TWAMP E2E paths, the intermediate network device will discover those different sequences of IP addresses for the forward direction path and another forward direction path of the TWAMP E2E paths.

11. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the network device is further caused to:

store, in the TWAMP path table, a TWAMP test session identifier (ID) and the sequence of IP addresses representing the forward direction path of the TWAMP E2E path, wherein the TWAMP test session ID identifies the TWAMP test session by information affecting the routing of TWAMP test session data over a network implementing equal cost multi path (ECMP) between the Sender and Reflector.

12. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium having computer code stored therein, which when executed by a set of one or more processors of a first network device to discover Two-Way Active Measurement Protocol (TWAMP) end-to-end (E2E) paths, wherein the first network device is configured to act as a Sender of a TWAMP E2E path having as a Reflector a second network device more than one hopcount away, causes the first network device to perform operations comprising:

transmitting, to a destination Internet Protocol (IP) address of the second network device for a TWAMP test session, a series of TWAMP test request packets with hopcounts starting at 1 and increasing until a TWAMP test reply message is received from the second network device acting as the Reflector of the TWAMP E2E path,

receiving respective Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) time exceeded messages, each including an Internet Protocol (IP) address of a network interface, responsive to each of the TWAMP test request packets transmitted with hopcounts that are less than the number of hopcounts required to reach the second network device, wherein the IP addresses placed in order of the series of TWAMP test request packets form a sequence of IP addresses representing a forward direction of the TWAMP E2E path,

repeat the code to determine another sequence of IP addresses representing another forward direction path in the set of alternate paths of the TWAMP E2E path,

utilize a corresponding path in the set of alternate paths in the TWAMP E2E path to generate performance metrics based on TWAMP test request and TWAMP test reply messages utilizing the corresponding path, where the corresponding path is a path in the set of alternate paths traversed by the TWAMP test request or the TWAMP test reply message, and

store the performance metrics in a TWAMP path table for each of the set of alternate paths with performance metrics generated from the perspective path in the set of alternate paths.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 12, further comprising:

transmitting and receiving with the second network device another TWAMP test request packet and TWAMP test reply message; and

determining a performance measurement (PM) based on the another TWAMP test reply message.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 12, further comprising tracking intervals to redo the TWAMP path discovery.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 12, further comprising:

storing in the TWAMP path table, a TWAMP test session identifier (ID) and the sequence of IP addresses representing the forward direction path of the TWAMP E2E path, where the TWAMP test session ID identifies the TWAMP session by information affecting the routing of TWAMP test session data over a network implementing equal cost multi path (ECMP).