Systems and methods for non-intrusive network performance monitoring

A method, comprising:

• receiving, by a first network device, packets as part of a traffic flow of an internet protocol (IP) session;
• selecting, by the first network device, a packet that is part of the traffic flow;
• generating, by the first network device, a packet replica of the packet that has been selected;
• adding, by the first network device and to the packet replica, routing information that is capable of being used to generate network performance indicators associated with the IP session;
• modifying, by the first network device, the packet replica to include one or more values that will cause the packet replica to fail to reach a destination device associated with the IP session;
• and
• providing, by the first network device and as part of the traffic flow of the IP session, the packet replica to one or more other network devices to cause a second network device, of the one or more other network devices, to remove the packet replica from the traffic flow of the IP session based on the packet replica including the one or more values that have been modified, and to perform one or more actions that cause the network performance indicators to be generated and provided to another device.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions, the instructions comprising:

• one or more instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a network device, cause the one or more processors to:
• receive, from another network device, a packet replica as part of a traffic flow of an internet protocol (IP) session,
• wherein the packet replica includes routing information capable of being used to generate network performance indicators associated with the IP session, and
• wherein the packet replica has been modified to include one or more values that will cause the packet replica to fail to reach a destination device associated with the IP session;
• perform a validation procedure by processing the packet replica,
• wherein the packet replica is to fail the validation procedure based on the one or more values included in the packet replica;
• identify the routing information included in the packet replica based on the packet replica failing the validation procedure;
• generate the network performance indicators using the packet replica or a group of packet replicas that have been modified and received over time;
• and
• provide the network performance indicators to a particular device.