Mechanisms for packet path tracing and per-hop delay measurement in segment routing with multiprotocol label switching (sr-mpls) networks

A system comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• memory storing thereon instructions that, as a result of being executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to:
• receive an address of a sink node;
• generate a probe message towards the sink node;
• define a flag in a label control field of a label in the probe message;
• allocate a computed data space in a header for midpoint nodes to record computed data;
• allocate a path tracing data space in the header for a source node to record path tracing data of the source node;
• record the path tracing data of the source node in the path tracing data space of the header;
• and
• transmit the probe message to a next hop midpoint node.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing thereon executable instructions that, as a result of being executed by one or more processors of a computer system, cause the computer system to:

• receive an address of a sink node;
• generate a probe message towards the sink node;
• define a flag in a label control field of a label in the probe message;
• allocate a computed data space in a header for midpoint nodes to record computed data;
• allocate a path tracing data space in the header for a source node to record path tracing data of the source node;
• record the path tracing data of the source node in the path tracing data space of the header;
• and
• transmit the probe message to a next hop midpoint node.