Quantifying performance of a connection by monitoring duplicate acknowledgement numbers

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions, which when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to be operable for:

• receiving a first acknowledgement message that acknowledges receipt of a first packet, the first acknowledgement message including a first acknowledgement number;
• determining whether the first acknowledgement message is a duplicate of a previous acknowledgement message, the previous acknowledgement message including a previously acknowledgement number and the determining including:
• comparing the first acknowledgement number to the previous acknowledgement number;
• comparing the first acknowledgement number to an expected acknowledgement number;
• and
• determining the first acknowledgement message is the duplicate of the previous acknowledgement message when the first acknowledgement number is equal to the previous acknowledgement number and first acknowledgement number is not equal to the expected acknowledgement number;
• when the first acknowledgement message is the duplicate of the previous acknowledgement message:
• receiving, by the computing device, a second acknowledgement message that acknowledges receipt of a second packet;
• determining, by the computing device, that the second acknowledgement message is not the duplicate of the previous acknowledgement message based on a second acknowledgement number included in the second acknowledgement message and the previous acknowledgement number;
• identifying an application identifier that identifies an application specific flow;
• and
• measuring, by the computing device, an application performance metric based on the first acknowledgement message, the second acknowledgement message, and the application identifier,
• wherein the application performance metric measures a time based on when the first acknowledgement message is received and the second acknowledgement message is received.

An apparatus comprising:

• one or more computer processors;
• and
• a computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions for controlling the one or more computer processors to be operable to:
• receive a first acknowledgement message that acknowledges receipt of a first packet, the first acknowledgement message including a first timestamp and a first acknowledgement number;
• compare the first acknowledgement number to a previous acknowledgement number of a previous acknowledgement message that was sent previous to the first acknowledgement message;
• compare the first acknowledgement number to an expected acknowledgement number;
• determine the first acknowledgement message is a duplicate of the previous acknowledgement message when the first acknowledgement number is equal to the previous acknowledgement number and the first acknowledgement number is not equal to the expected acknowledgement number;
• and
• when the first acknowledgement message is the duplicate of the previous acknowledgement message:
• receive a second acknowledgement message that acknowledges receipt of a second packet, the second acknowledgement message including a second timestamp and a second acknowledgement number;
• determine that the second acknowledgement message is not the duplicate of the previous acknowledgement message based on the first and second acknowledgement numbers;
• identify an application identifier that identifies an application specific flow;
• and
• measure an application recovery time based on the first timestamp of the first acknowledgement message, the second timestamp of the second acknowledgement message, and the application identifier.