Systems and methods for network management

A method, comprising:

• identifying a first transmission, over a network, of a first identifiable data packet from a first node to a second node, wherein the first identifiable data packet comprises a first encrypted payload and a first unencrypted header indicating a first packet size;
• identifying a second transmission, over the network, of a second identifiable data packet from the second node to the first node, wherein the second identifiable data packet comprises a second encrypted payload and a second unencrypted header indicating a second packet size;
• determining, without using an encryption key and based upon the first packet size indicated by the first unencrypted header of the first identifiable data packet and the second packet size indicated by the second unencrypted header of the second identifiable data packet, that the first identifiable data packet and the second identifiable data packet are a send-reply pair of data packets;
• determining one or more first timestamps associated with the first transmission of the first identifiable data packet;
• determining one or more second timestamps associated with the second transmission of the second identifiable data packet;
• and
• determining one or more performance metrics, associated with the send-reply pair of data packets, based upon the one or more first timestamps and the one or more second timestamps.

A computer comprising:

• a processor coupled to memory, the processor configured to execute instructions from the memory to perform operations comprising:
• determining a packet size modulation profile for use in generating identifiable data packets;
• generating, based upon the packet size modulation profile, a first identifiable data packet having a first packet size, wherein the first identifiable data packet is addressed to a node of a network and comprises a first encrypted payload and a first unencrypted header indicating the first packet size;
• transmitting, over the network, the first identifiable data packet to the node;
• and
• receiving, from the node, a second identifiable data packet corresponding to a reply to the first identifiable data packet and comprising a second encrypted payload and a second unencrypted header indicating a second packet size, wherein the first identifiable data packet comprising the first encrypted payload and the second identifiable data packet comprising the second encrypted payload are identifiable as a send-reply pair of data packets without using an encryption key based upon the first packet size indicated by the first unencrypted header of the first identifiable data packet and the second packet size indicated by the second unencrypted header of the second identifiable data packet.