Mechanism and protocol for per connection based service level agreement measurement
AssigneeAtrica Ireland Limited
InventorsAmir Lahat, Ronen Ofek, Yoav Kluger, Lior Shabtay
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A mechanism and associated protocol for performing Service Level Agreement (SLA) measurements in a communications network. The measurements obtained are used to perform various SLA parameter calculations such as delay, round trip delay, one way jitter and bandwidth related calculations. SLA measurement request and response messages are stamped with time and bandwidth counters by the client and remote ends of a connection. The resultant data is used to perform the calculation of SLA parameters.
Claims70
A method in a network for performing service level agreement (SLA) measurements on one or more connections, said method comprising the steps of:
- generating at a local device a local ingress stamp and transmitting an SLA measurement request message incorporating said local ingress stamp over the connection to a remote device;
- generating a remote egress stamp at said remote device and transmitting an SLA measurement response message incorporating acid remote egress stamp and said local ingress stamp over, the connection to said local device;
- generating a local egress stamp upon receipt by said local device of said SLA measurement response message;
- and
- calculating one or more SLA parameter measurements in accordance with said local ingress stamp, said remote egress stamp and said local egress stamp.
A method in a network device for performing service level agreement (SLA) measurements on one or more connections, said method comprising the steps of:
- generating a client ingress stamp and transmitting an SLA measurement request message incorporating said local ingress stamp over a communications network to a remote device for generating a server egress stamp and responding therewith;
- receiving an SLA measurement response message incorporating said server egress stamp and generating a client egress stamp in response thereto;
- and
- calculating one or more SLA parameter measurements in accordance with said client ingress stamp, said server egress stamp and said client egress stamp.
The method according to clam 24, wherein said SLA measurement response message comprises a second corresponding destination multicast Internet Protocol (IP) address.
A method in a network device for performing service level agreement (SLA) measurements on one or more connections, said method comprising the steps of:
- receiving an SLA measurement request message incorporating a client ingress stamp from a client device over a communications network;
- and
- generating a server egress stamp and transmitting an SLA measurement response message incorporating said remote egress stamp and said client ingress stamp over said communications network to said client device for generating a client egress stamp and calculating one or more SLA parameter measurements in accordance with said client ingress stamp, said server egress stamp and said client egress stamp.
A network device, comprising:
- a control processor;
- one or more user ports;
- one or more network ports;
- ingress packet processing means adapted to recognize service level agreement (SLA) measurement request messages generated for connections and to generate client ingress stamps in response thereto;
- transmission means adapted to transmit said SLA measurement request messages over a communications network to a remote device at a far end of the connection for replying with a server egress stamp within an SLA measurement response message;
- egress packet processing means adapted to recognize said SLA measurement response message and to generate a client egress stamp;
- means for forwarding said client ingress stamp, server egress stamp, said client egress stamp, connection-ID and iterator to said control processor;
- and
- software operative on said control processor for calculating one or more SLA measurement parameters in accordance with said client ingress stamp, server egress stamp and said client egress stamp.
A protocol for use in performing service level agreement (SLA) measurements in a network, comprising messages wherein each message comprises:
- a first field in an SLA measurement message representing a particular connection to be measured;
- a second field in an SLA measurement message representing a client ingress stamp;
- a third field in an SLA measurement message representing a server egress stamp;
- and
- a fourth field in an SLA measurement message representing a client egress stamp.
A computer program product for use in a network device, said computer program product comprising:
- a computer useable medium having computer readable program code means embodied in said medium for performing service level agreement (SLA) measurements on one or more connections, said computer program product comprising:
- computer readable program code means for generating, for each connection to be measured, a client ingress stamp and transmitting an SLA measurement request message incorporating said local ingress stamp over a communications network to a remote device for responding with an server egress stamp;
- computer readable program code means for receiving an SLA measurement response message incorporating said server egress stamp and generating a client egress stamp in response thereto;
- and
- computer readable program code means for calculating one or more SLA parameter measurements in accordance with said client ingress stamp, said server egress stamp and said client egress stamp.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.