Throttling distributed statistical data retrieval in a network device

A method of managing distributed statistical data retrieval in a network device, comprising:

• a. gathering statistical data on at least one card within the network device periodically, wherein, upon each start, upgrade, or reboot, a device driver on the at least one card informs a usage data monitoring library on the at least one card which statistical data the device driver is able to gather;
• b. sending a predetermined number of packets from the card to a central process, wherein one of the predetermined number of packets is a registration packet comprising one or more string names corresponding to the types of statistical data that the usage data monitoring library will send to the central process, wherein each packet includes at least a portion of the statistical data, and wherein the predetermined number of packets is determined via a negotiation between the card and the central process upon a registration of the card with the central process;
• c. sending an acknowledge request to the central process in conjunction with sending the last packet in the predetermined number;
• and
• d. controlling the number of packets sent from the card to the central process, including:
• sending an acknowledge packet from the central process to the card;
• and
• repeating steps b, c and d when the acknowledge packet is received at the card,
• wherein sending an acknowledge packet from the central process to the card, comprises:
• detecting an acknowledge request at the central process in a packet received from the card;
• determining a number of packets to be processed by the central process;
• comparing the number of packets to be processed to a predetermined threshold periodically;
• and
• sending the acknowledge packet to the card from the central process when the number of packets to be processed is less than the predetermined threshold, and
• wherein the controlling the number of packets sent from the card to the central process load balances the statistical data across a control plane, smoothes out control plane bandwidth utilization, and reduces data buffering and data loss.

A method of managing distributed statistical data retrieval in a network device, comprising:

• a. gathering statistical data on a plurality of cards within the network device periodically, wherein, upon each start, upgrade, or reboot, a device driver on at least one card informs a usage data monitoring library on the card which statistical data the device driver is able to gather;
• b. sending a predetermined number of packets from each card to the central process, wherein one of the predetermined number of packets is a registration packet comprising one or more string names corresponding to the types of statistical data that the usage data monitoring library will send to the central process, wherein each packet includes at least a portion of the statistical data, and wherein the predetermined number of packets is determined via a negotiation between the card and the central process upon a registration of the card with the central process;
• and
• c. sending an acknowledge request from each card to the central process in conjunction with sending the last packet in the predetermined number;
• and
• d. controlling the number of packets sent from the cards to the central process, including:
• sending an acknowledge packet from the central process to each card indicating a time at which the card can resume sending packets to the central process, said time being based on an estimate of time a interval needed by the central process to process a sufficient number of the received packets to reduce the number of packets awaiting processing below a predetermined threshold, wherein the controlling the number of packets sent from the card to the central process load balances the statistical data across a control plane, smoothes out control plane bandwidth utilization, and reduces data buffering and data loss;
• and
• repeating steps b, c and d when the acknowledge packet is received at each card and the time indicated has elapsed.

A method of managing distributed statistical data retrieval in a network device, comprising:

• gathering a plurality of different types of statistical data on at least one card within the network device periodically, wherein, upon each start, upgrade, or reboot, a device driver on the at least one card informs a usage data monitoring library on the at least one card which statistical data the device driver is able to gather;
• and
• sending groups of packets from the card to a central process at staggered times, wherein each group of packets includes one of different types of statistical data wherein the staggered times are determined by a plurality of polling timers, each corresponding to one of said statistical data types, wherein one of the packets is a registration packet comprising one or more string names corresponding to the types of statistical data that the usage data monitoring library will send to the central process, and wherein a size of each of the groups of packets is determined via a negotiation between the card and the central process upon a registration of the card with the central process;
• and
• wherein the sending groups of packets from the card to a central process at staggered times load balances the statistical data across a control plane, smoothes out control plane bandwidth utilization, and reduces data buffering and data loss.