Determining traceroute of an existing tcp flow
AssigneeCharter Communications Operating, LLC
InventorRobert B. Hulshof
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
To determine a path traceroute for an existing (e.g., TCP) flow, a path node (e.g., the flow's source node) transmits towards the flow's destination node a set of traceroute packets having different time-to-live (TTL) values and the same payload as the payload in a captured, existing flow packet so that the destination node will drop (large-TTL) traceroute packets having duplicate payloads. The traceroute is determined from timeout packets received from hops that received expired (i.e., small-TTL) traceroute packets.
Claims15
A method for determining a traceroute of at least a portion of a path of an existing flow from a source node via a set of one or more hops to a destination node in a communication network, the method comprising a path node:
- identifying the existing flow in the communication network;
- transmitting towards the destination node along the portion of the path a set of traceroute packets having different time-to-live (TTL) values and a payload identical to a payload of an existing flow packet of the existing flow;
- receiving, from each hop in the portion of the path, a timeout packet identifying the hop and a corresponding traceroute packet;
- and
- determining the traceroute from the one or more timeout packets.
Apparatus comprising a path node for determining a traceroute of at least a portion of a path of an existing flow from a source node via a set of one or more hops to a destination node in a communication network, the path node comprising:
- a memory;
- and
- at least one processor, coupled to the memory and operative to:
- identify the existing flow in the communication network;
- transmit towards the destination node along the portion of the path a set of traceroute packets having different TTL values and a payload identical to a payload of an existing flow packet of the existing flow;
- receive, from each hop in the portion of the path, a timeout packet identifying the hop and a corresponding traceroute packet;
- and
- determine the traceroute from the one or more timeout packets.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.