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US 12,659,249 B2Granted
Recording packet loss in a network
AssigneeArista Networks, Inc.
InventorsDouglas Alan Gourlay, Udayakumar Srinivasan, Fred Hsu
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Packets in a network may be dropped from time to time. Although network devices are able to provide counters specifying the number of dropped packets, these network devices are unable to provide additional context about the dropped packets. However, users of a network wish to know more about dropped packets; such as why the packets were dropped. Therefore, methods for capturing and storing the dropped packets are provided. This way, users can analyze the dropped packets to determine why these packets were dropped.
Claims20
A method for recording network traffic loss across a network, the method being executed by a network device within the network and comprising:
- initiating transmission of a first packet and second packet;
- in response to initiating the transmission, initializing the first packet and the second packet for the transmission, wherein the initializing of the first packet and the second packet for the transmission comprises:
- attaching a first identifier (ID) to a header of the first packet and a second identifier (ID) to a header of the second packet, wherein the second ID is different from the first ID;
- generating a copy of the first packet including the first ID and a copy of the second packet including the second ID;
- and
- storing the copy of the first packet and the copy of the second packet in a first storage;
- transmitting, after initializing the first packet and the second packet, the first packet and the second packet to a receiving network device connected to the transmitting network device via the network;
- receiving, after the transmitting, a first notification from the receiving network device that one of the first packet or the second packet was not received, wherein the first notification comprises one or more identifiers of packets not received by the receiving network device between a start of both a global network timer and a moving window timer at the receiving network device and an expiration of either the global network timer or the moving window timer, wherein the moving window timer is shorter than the global network timer, the global network timer and the moving window timer were both started based on a determination that one or more packets were not received at the receiving network device, and the moving window timer is restarted based on determination of another packet drop within the moving window timer;
- and
- displaying, to a user of the transmitting network device and using the first notification, a second notification to the user that the one of the first packet or the second packet was not received by the receiving network device.
7 more elements
A network device, comprising:
- a processor;
- data storage;
- and
- a non-transitory computer readable medium, comprising instructions for:
- obtaining a first packet and a second packet;
- attaching a first identifier (ID) to a header of the first packet and a second identifier (ID) to a header of the second packet, wherein the second ID is different from the first ID;
- generating a copy of the first packet including the first ID and a copy of the second packet including the second ID;
- storing the copy of the first packet and the copy of the second packet in the data storage;
- transmitting the first packet and the second packet to a receiving network device;
- receiving, after the transmitting, a first notification from the receiving network device that one of the first packet or the second packet was not received, wherein the first notification comprises one or more identifiers of packets not received by the receiving network device between a start of both a global network timer and a moving window timer at the receiving network device and an expiration of either the global network timer or the moving window timer, wherein the moving window timer is shorter than the global network timer, the global network timer and the moving window timer were both started based on a determination that one or more packets were not received at the receiving network device, and the moving window timer is restarted based on determination of another packet drop within the moving window timer;
- and
- based on the first notification, displaying to a user a second notification that the one of the first packet or the second packet was not received by the receiving network device.
9 more elements
A non-transitory computer readable medium, comprising instructions for:
- receiving a first notification that at least one of a first packet or a second packet was not received at a receiving network device, wherein the first notification comprises one or more identifiers of packets not received by the receiving network device between a start of both a global network timer and a moving window timer at the receiving network device and an expiration of either the global network timer or the moving window timer, wherein the moving window timer is shorter than the global network timer, the global network timer and the moving window timer were both started based on a determination that one or more packets were not received at the receiving network device, and the moving window timer is restarted based on determination of another packet drop within the moving window timer, and wherein:
- a first identifier (ID) was attached to a header of the first packet and a second identifier (ID) was attached to a header of the second packet, where the second ID is different from the first ID;
- a copy of the first packet including the first ID was generated;
- a copy of the second packet including the second ID was generated;
- the copy of the first packet and the copy of the second packet were stored in data storage;
- and
- the first packet and the second packet were transmitted to the receiving network device;
- and
- based on the first notification, displaying to a user a second notification that at least one of the first packet or the second packet was not received by the receiving network device.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.