US 11,601,356 B2 · Emulating packet flows to assess network links for SD-WAN

Abstract

Some embodiments provide a novel method for assessing the suitability of network links for connecting compute nodes located at different geographic sites. The method of some embodiments identifies and analyzes sample packets from a set of flows exchanged between first and second compute sites that are connected through a first network link in order to identify attributes of the sampled packets. The method also computes attributes of predicted packets between the identified samples in order to identify attributes of each flow in the set of flows. The method then uses the identified and computed attributes of each flow in the set of flows to emulate the set of flows passing between the two compute sites through the second network link in order to assess whether a second network link should be used for future flows (e.g., future flows exchanged between the first and second compute sites).

Claims19

Dependent claims

A method of assessing changes to network links used to connect different compute sites, the method comprising:

identifying packets of a subset of flows exchanged between first and second compute sites connected through a first network link;
identifying, for each identified packet, at least one packet-traversal attribute that relates to the packet's traversal from the first site to the second site through the first network link;
adjusting the identified packet-traversal attributes of the identified packets in order to make the identified packet-traversal attributes independent of a set of conditions associated with the first network link;
using the adjusted packet-traversal attributes of the packets to perform an emulation of the subset of flows being exchanged between the two compute sites through a second network link in order to assess whether the second network link could be used for future flows without a performance degradation that is more than a threshold amount, wherein the second network link is less expensive and has lower performance than the first network link.

1 more element

A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program for assessing changes to network links used to connect different compute sites, the program for execution by at least one processing unit of a computer, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

identifying packets of a subset of flows exchanged between first and second compute sites connected through a first network link;
identifying, for each identified packet, at least one packet-traversal attribute that relates to the packet's traversal from the first site to the second site through the first network link;
adjusting the identified packet-traversal attributes of the identified packets in order to make the identified packet-traversal attributes independent of a set of conditions associated with the first network link;
using the adjusted packet-traversal attributes of the packets to perform an emulation of the subset of flows being exchanged between the two compute sites through a second network link in order to assess whether the second network link could be used for future flows, wherein the second network link is less expensive and has lower performance than the first network link.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Emulating packet flows to assess network links for SD-WAN

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Emulating packet flows to assess network links for SD-WAN

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Abstract

Claims19