Traceroute in virtual extenisble local area networks

A method comprising:

• receiving, at a network node along a path from an ingress node to at least one egress node of a network, an encapsulated multicast packet, an inner packet being encapsulated within the encapsulated packet;
• determining from the inner packet that the encapsulated packet is configured to perform a traceroute procedure;
• sending at least one of a copy of the encapsulated packet or the inner packet towards a destination indicated in the encapsulated packet along a multicast tree;
• and
• sending a response to the ingress node comprising an indication of the network node and an indication of a sending network node from which the network node received the encapsulated packet.

An apparatus comprising:

• a network interface unit to enable communication over a network;
• and
• a processor coupled to the network interface unit to:
• encapsulate an inner packet configured with a multicast address and configured to perform a traceroute operation through a network to form an encapsulated packet;
• send the encapsulated packet into the network, the encapsulated packet being forwarded along a multicast tree of the network for the multicast address;
• and
• receive responses from a plurality of network nodes comprising the multicast tree, wherein each response comprises an indication of a node of the plurality of nodes that sends the response and an indication of a node from which the node sending the response received the encapsulated packet.