Method and device for measurement of performance parameters of an asynchronous transfer mode transmission network

A device for measurement of performance parameters of an asynchronous transfer mode network comprising:

• means for transmission of an asynchronous incident flow of cells having a format and a bit rate corresponding to a transmission standard of the asynchronous transfer mode network;
• and
• means for reception of an asynchronous flow of cells that are transmitted by said means for transmission, wherein:
• A) the means for transmission comprises:
• a counter activated by a clock,
• means for the generation of identifiable measurement cells, and
• means for the insertion of the identifiable measurement cells into the asynchronous incident flow of cells, and
• B) the means for reception comprises:
• means for counting the asynchronous flow of cells that are received by said means for reception,
• means for detection and counting of the identifiable measurement cells,
• means to compare a content of the detected identifiable measurement cells with an expected content so as to detect transmission errors,
• means to memorize one member selected from the group consisting of a counting information element and a reception information element, the reception information element being a function of the number of cells received by said means for reception and of a number of errors in a single identifiable measurement cell, and
• means for processing of the counting information element and the reception information element to obtain a dating of the cells and the transmission error rate.

A method for measurement of performance parameters of an asynchronous transfer mode transmission network having an asynchronous transfer mode channel, said method comprising:

• generating identifiable measurement cells and inserting the identifiable measurement cells into an asynchronous incident flow of cells transmitted by the asynchronous transfer mode channel;
• receiving an asynchronous flow of cells from the asynchronous transfer mode channel;
• counting a total number of cells received in the asynchronous flow of cells;
• detecting the identifiable measurement cells among the asynchronous flow of cells and counting a total number of identifiable measurement cells received in the asynchronous flow of cells;
• comparing a content of each individual identifiable measurement cell with an expected content for that individual identifiable measurement cell so as to detect transmission errors;
• generating and memorizing a counting data element upon each reception of a given number of cells in the asynchronous flow of cells, the counting data element including the total number of cells received in the asynchronous flow of cells;
• and
• generating and memorizing a reception data element whenever the content of each individual identifiable measurement cell does not correspond to the expected content for that individual identifiable measurement cell, the reception data element including the total number of cells received in the asynchronous flow of cells, the total number of identifiable measurement cells received in the asynchronous flow of cells, the content of that individual identifiable measurement cell and a number of errors declared.