Method and system of measuring latency and packet loss in a network by using probe packets

A network element comprising a first input port, a first packet forwarder and a first probe packet manager;

• the first input port receiving a first stream of packets from a source for a destination, the first stream of packets having at least one associated service level parameter;
• the first probe packet manager, on an ongoing basis and independently of said source, generating a probe packet and passing each probe packet to the first packet forwarder;
• the first packet forwarder adding to each probe packet a respective source transmit time, which represents a current network time, and inserting the probe packet into the stream of packets to generate a first probe packetized stream of packets;
• the first packet forwarder further forwarding each packet of the first probe packetized stream of packets on towards the destination in accordance with the at least one associated service level parameter.

A method of measuring one way jitter in a network comprising for each source, first network element, second network element, destination, service level parameter permutation for which one way jitter is to be measured:

• at a first network element, receMng a first stream of packets from a source, the first stream of packets having at least one associated service level parameter;
• at the first network element, on an ongoing basis and independently of said source inserting into the first stream of packets a probe packet to produce a probe packetized stream of packets, each probe packet containing a respective source transmit time which represents first network element time at a time of insertion of the probe packet;
• the first network element processing arid forwarding each packet of the probe packetizeci stream of packets in accordance with the at least one associated service level parameter;
• at a second network element, receiving the probe packetized stream of packets;
• the second network element extracting each probe packet and determining a respective destination receive time which represents second network element time at a time of extraction of the probe packet;
• using the source transmit time and the destination receive time to calculate an estimate of one way jitter for traffic from the first network element to the second network element.

A method of measuring packet loss in a network comprising for each source, first network element, second network element, destination, service level parameter permutation for which packet loss is to be measured:

• at a first network element, receiving a first stream of packets from a source, the first stream of packets having at least one associated service level parameter;
• the first network element maintaining a respective first count of how many packets have been received from the source for transmission to the destination;
• at the first network element, on an ongoing basis and independently of said source inserting into the first stream of packets a probe packet to produce a probe packetized stream of packets, each probe packet containing a most recent value for the first count;
• the first network element processing and forwarding each packet of the probe packetized stream of packets in accordance with the at least one associated service level parameter;
• at a second network element, receiving the probe packetized stream of packets;
• the second network element maintaining a respective second count of how many packets have been received from the source for forwarding to the destination;
• the second network element extracting each probe packet from the probe packetized stream of packets and determining a packet loss for transmission from the source to the destination by subtracting the second count from the first count.