Active network performance measurement leveraging networking protocol features

An apparatus comprising:

• a network interface configured to enable communications over a network;
• and
• a processor coupled to the network interface, the processor configured to perform operations including:
• generating a first frame according to a feature of a networking protocol, the first frame including a timestamp indicating a departure time of the first frame into each of a first field and a second field of a header of the first frame, wherein the first field of the header of the first frame is a sequence number field;
• sending the first frame to a network entity in the network, the first frame configured to cause the network entity to send, in reply to the first frame, a second frame according to the feature of the networking protocol, the second frame including a timestamp indicating a departure time of the second frame in either a first field or a second field of a header of the second frame;
• receiving the second frame;
• and
• deriving a network performance metric from the timestamp indicating a departure time of the first frame and the timestamp included in the second frame.

One or more non-transitory computer readable storage media encoded with instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations including:

• generating a first frame according to a feature of a networking protocol, the first frame including a timestamp indicating a departure time of the first frame into each of a first field and a second field of a header of the first frame, wherein the first field of the header of the first frame is a sequence number field;
• sending the first frame to a network entity in a network, the first frame configured to cause the network entity to send, in reply to the first frame, a second frame according to the feature of the networking protocol, the second frame including a timestamp indicating a departure time of the second frame in either a first field or a second field of a header of the second frame;
• receiving the second frame;
• and
• deriving a network performance metric from the timestamp indicating a departure time of the first frame and the timestamp included in the second frame.