Techniques for tracing operations in a network

A method for tracing operations in a network, the method being performed by an application server, the method comprising:

• receiving a constrained application protocol, CoAP, message from a wireless device operatively connected to the network, where the CoAP message has a header part and a payload part, and where the payload part comprises a trace instance for tracing operations performed by the wireless device with respect to a piece of data, where the trace instance comprises an identifier of a span of the trace instance, an initial timestamp from when the span was originally created, and a reference to another span of the trace instance;
• and
• transmitting, to a tracing collector, trace and span information defined by the identifier of the span, the initial timestamp, and the reference.

An application server for tracing operations in a network, the application server comprising processing circuitry, the processing circuitry being configured to cause the application server to:

• receive a constrained application protocol, CoAP, message from a wireless device operatively connected to the network, where the CoAP message has a header part and a payload part, and where the payload part comprises a trace instance for tracing operations performed by the wireless device with respect to a piece of data, where the trace instance comprises an identifier of a span of the trace instance, an initial timestamp from when the span was originally created, and a reference to another span of the trace instance;
• and
• transmit trace and span information defined by the identifier of the span, the initial timestamp, and the reference to a tracing collector.