Probe for measuring quality-of-service parameters in a telecommunication network

#1. Field of the Invention

#This present invention relates to measuring the characteristic parameters of the equipment traversed by a data flow within a data network, and a telecommunication network in particular. It applies particularly well to measurement of quality-of-service parameters rendered in respect of the data flow passing through this telecommunication network, but could also apply to other characteristics of the equipment such as loading, temperature, the state of queues, and so on, located in the path of these data flows.

#2. Description of the Related Art

#The invention and its advantages will appear more clearly in the description of its implementation which follows, together with the appended figures.

#FIG. 1, already mentioned, illustrates a state-of-the-art solution.

#FIG. 2 represents the functional architecture of a probe according to the invention.

#In accordance with various implementations of the invention, the measuring probe can be incorporated into a specific device such as those of the state-of-the-art devices of the Ipanema company, or indeed into network equipment such as a switch, an IP router, etc.

#In this last case, the measuring probe can, in particular, be a software module capable of being executed by the operating system of the network equipment. This software module can be installed at the time of activation of the network equipment, or indeed later in the context of an update to the software of this equipment, and/or in a dynamic manner by downloading over the network, from a dedicated server for example. This software module can be developed in the Java™ language, for example, in order to facilitate its dynamic implementation on the network equipment.

#By network equipment is meant a router in particular, in the context of a network based on an IPv4 or IPv6 protocol stack (Internet Protocol, version 4/6).