Method and apparatus for packet loss measurement in packet networks

Abstract

A simple and efficient method for packet loss measurement in high-speed switches is achieved by identifying traffic flows in the ingress side of switches, and measuring packets losses for the identifies flows on the egress side of the switches. Specifically, on the ingress side of the switch, the last packet of each fixed size incoming packet block is marked to make it distinct from other packets in the block. On the egress side, the packet flow is monitored and the packets are counted using the block size as a counting modulo. The value of this counter at the receipt of a marked packets is used to update the number of packets that do not make their way across the switch. The method is applicable to multicast as well as to unicast packets. This method is simple in that it only requires two marking counters per distinct flow, one at ingress and one at egress, and two other counters at the egress per each measured flow. It is also efficient, as it can achieve any degree of accuracy with little implementation cost. This method can be applied to a wide range of switch/router designs where simple and fast hardware implementation is desirable.

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