# US RE50,298 E1 · Exporting real time network traffic latency and buffer occupancy > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US RE50,298 E1 - Document ID: USRE50298E1 - Status: Granted - Kind: E1 - Application number: 17/329,520 - Filed: 2021-05-25 - Granted: 2025-02-11 - Earliest claimed: 2012-09-18 - Assignees: Cisco Technology, Inc. - Applicants: Cisco Technology, Inc. - Inventors: Thomas J. Edsall; Yue J. Yang; Wei-Jen Huang; Chih-Tsung Huang - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/USRE50298E1 ## CPC - H04L 43/045: for graphical visualisation of monitoring data - H04L 43/08: Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters - H04L 43/0882: Utilisation of link capacity - H04L 43/10: Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route - H04L 47/24: Traffic characterised by specific attributes, e.g. priority or QoS - H04L 47/30: in combination with information about buffer occupancy at either end or at transit nodes - H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M) ## Abstract Techniques are presented herein to facilitate the monitoring of occupancy of a buffer in a network device. Packets are received at a network device. Information is captured describing occupancy of the buffer caused by packet flow through the buffer in the network device. Analytics packets are generated containing the information. The analytics packets from the network device for retrieval of the information contained therein for analysis, replay of buffer occupancy, etc. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method comprising: at a collector device configured to be in communication with a network device operating in a network: receiving analytics packets containing information describing occupancy of a buffer of the network device caused by packet flow through the buffer in the network device, each analytics packet including a record summarizing characteristics of a packet enqueued in the buffer or of a packet dequeued from the buffer; and replaying the information pertaining to the occupancy of the buffer over time based on the analytics packets, by generating data for visually presenting to a user the information pertaining to the occupancy of the buffer over time. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein replaying is based on one or more filtering criteria. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the information describes at least one of: identification of ingress port of arrival of a packet at the network device, Layer 2 source address and destination address, Layer 3 source address and destination address, Layer 4 source address and destination address, class of service, or timestamp of arrival of a packet at the ingress port. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the information describes at least one of: identification of egress port for departure of a packet from the network device, Layer 2 source address and destination address, Layer 3 source address and destination address, or timestamp of departure of a packet from the egress port. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the analytics packets include enqueue analytics packets and dequeue analytics packets, the enqueue analytics packets including information describing properties associated with a packet being enqueued to the buffer in the network device and the dequeue analytics packets including information describing properties associated with a packet being dequeued from the buffer in the network device. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the information describes buffer occupancy characteristics of the buffer including at least one of: overall buffer occupancy, buffer occupancy based on packet priority, unicast queue length or multicast queue length. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the information describes packet processing properties for packets processed by the network device including at least one of: drop, port mirrored, load balanced, bridged or routed, or packet length. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the information describes packet processing properties for packets corresponding to user defined parameters for one or more of: rate limited, shaped, policed or any programmable bytes of the packet including payload. ### Claim 9 An apparatus comprising: a memory; a processor coupled to the memory and configured to be in communication with a network device operating in a network, and configured to: receive analytics packets containing information describing occupancy of a buffer of the network device caused by packet flow through the buffer in the network device, each analytics packet including a record summarizing characteristics of a packet enqueued in the buffer or of a packet dequeued from the buffer; and replay the information pertaining to the occupancy of the buffer over time based on the analytics packets, by generating data for visually presenting to a user the information pertaining to the occupancy of the buffer over time. ### Claim 10 (depends on 9) The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the processor is configured to generate data to replay the information based on one or more filtering criteria. ### Claim 11 (depends on 9) The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the information describes at least one of: identification of ingress port of arrival of a packet at the network device, Layer 2 source address and destination address, Layer 3 source address and destination address, Layer 4 source address and destination address, class of service, or timestamp of arrival of a packet at the ingress port. ### Claim 12 (depends on 9) The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the analytics packets include enqueue analytics packets and dequeue analytics packets, the enqueue analytics packets including information describing properties associated with a packet being enqueued to the buffer in the network device and the dequeue analytics packets including information describing properties associated with a packet being dequeued from the buffer in the network device. ### Claim 13 (depends on 9) The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the information describes buffer occupancy characteristics of the buffer including at least one of: overall buffer occupancy, buffer occupancy based on packet priority, unicast queue length or multicast queue length. ### Claim 14 (depends on 9) The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the information describes packet processing properties for packets processed by the network device including at least one of: drop, port mirrored, load balanced, bridged or routed, or packet length. ### Claim 15 (depends on 9) The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the information describes packet processing properties for packets corresponding to user defined parameters for one or more of: rate limited, shaped, policed or any programmable bytes of the packet including payload. ### Claim 16 A non-transitory computer readable tangible storage media encoded with instructions that, when executed by a processor of a collector device in communication with a network device operating in the network, cause the processor to: receive analytics packets containing information describing occupancy of a buffer of the network device caused by packet flow through the buffer in the network device, each analytics packet including a record summarizing characteristics of a packet enqueued in the buffer or of a packet dequeued from the buffer; and replay the information pertaining to the occupancy of the buffer over time based on the analytics packets, by generating data for visually presenting to a user the information pertaining to the occupancy of the buffer over time. ### Claim 17 (depends on 16) The non-transitory computer readable tangible storage media of claim 16, further comprising instructions to generate data to replay the information based on one or more filtering criteria. ### Claim 18 (depends on 16) The non-transitory computer readable tangible storage media of claim 16, wherein the information describes at least one of: identification of ingress port of arrival of a packet at the network device, Layer 2 source address and destination address, Layer 3 source address and destination address, Layer 4 source address and destination address, class of service, or timestamp of arrival of a packet at the ingress port. ### Claim 19 (depends on 16) The non-transitory computer readable tangible storage media of claim 16, wherein the analytics packets include enqueue analytics packets and dequeue analytics packets, the enqueue analytics packets including information describing properties associated with a packet being enqueued to the buffer in the network device and the dequeue analytics packets including information describing properties associated with a packet being dequeued from the buffer in the network device. ### Claim 20 (depends on 16) The non-transitory computer readable tangible storage media of claim 16, wherein the information describing buffer occupancy characteristics of the buffer including at least one of: overall buffer occupancy, buffer occupancy based on packet priority, unicast queue length or multicast queue length. ### Claim 21 A method comprising: receiving packets at a network device; capturing information describing an occupancy of a buffer caused by packet flow through the buffer in the network device; selecting one or more packets by applying a filter to the packets in the buffer to provide selected packets; generating an analytics packet including packet characteristics of one or more of the selected packets that flowed through the buffer, wherein the packet characteristics include one or more of: an identification of ingress port of arrival of the packet at the network device, a Layer 2 address, a Layer 3 address, a Layer 4 address, a class of service, or a timestamp corresponding to a packet arrival time at the ingress port; sending the analytics packet to a collector device for analysis of the analytics packet. ### Claim 22 (depends on 21) The method of claim 21, further comprising: receiving the analytics packet at the collector device; and performing the analysis of the analytics packet at the collector device. ### Claim 23 (depends on 22) The method of claim 22, wherein the receiving and the performing are performed by a CPU and a memory in the network device. ### Claim 24 (depends on 22) The method of claim 22, wherein the receiving the analytics packet comprises receiving the analytics packet at the collector device that is connected to the network device via a network. ### Claim 25 (depends on 21) The method of claim 21, wherein sending the analytics packet to the collector device includes sending the analytics packet from an egress port on the network device. ### Claim 26 (depends on 21) The method of claim 21, wherein the sending the analytics packet comprises sending the analytics packet on a programmable time schedule. ### Claim 27 A method comprising: receiving packets at an ingress port on a network device; placing the packets in a buffer prior to the packets being sent out an egress port of the network device; selecting one or more packets by applying a filter to the packets in the buffer to provide selected packets; generating analytics information describing an occupancy of the buffer, the analytics information including packet characteristics relating to one or more of the selected packets; and sending the analytics information to a collector device for analysis. ### Claim 28 (depends on 27) The method of claim 27, wherein the filter relates to the occupancy of the buffer. ### Claim 29 (depends on 27) The method of claim 27, wherein the packet characteristics include one or more of: an identification of ingress port of arrival of a packet at the network device, a Layer 2 address, a Layer 3 address, a Layer 4 address, a class of service, or a timestamp corresponding to a packet arrival time at the ingress port. ### Claim 30 (depends on 27) The method of claim 27, further comprising: receiving the analytics information at the collector device; and performing the analysis of the analytics information at the collector device. ### Claim 31 (depends on 30) The method of claim 30, wherein the receiving and the performing are performed by a CPU and a memory in the network device. ### Claim 32 (depends on 30) The method of claim 30, wherein the receiving the analytics information comprises receiving the analytics information at the collector device that is connected to the network device via a network. ### Claim 33 (depends on 27) The method of claim 27, wherein sending the analytics information to the collector device includes generating an analytics packet and sending the analytics packet from an egress port on the network device. ### Claim 34 (depends on 27) The method of claim 27, wherein the sending includes sending the analytics information on a programmable time schedule. ### Claim 35 (depends on 27) The method of claim 27, wherein the analytics information includes queue length information. ### Claim 36 (depends on 27) The method of claim 27, wherein the packet characteristics include an indication whether a packet was dropped due to the occupancy of the buffer. ### Claim 37 A network device comprising: a plurality of ingress ports and a plurality of egress ports; a buffer to temporarily store one or more incoming packets received by the network device through one of the ingress ports; and an analytics logic configured to select one or more packets by applying a filter to the packets in the buffer to provide one or more selected packets, generate analytics information describing an occupancy of the buffer, and send the analytics information to a collector device for analysis, wherein the analytics information includes packet characteristics relating to one or more of the selected packets. ### Claim 38 (depends on 27) The network device of claim 27, wherein the analytics information includes queue length information. ### Claim 39 (depends on 37) The network device of claim 37, wherein the packet characteristics include an indication whether a packet was dropped due to the occupancy of the buffer. ### Claim 40 (depends on 37) The network device of claim 37, wherein the packet characteristics include one or more of: an identification of ingress port of arrival of a packet at the network device, a Layer 2 address, a Layer 3 address, a Layer 4 address, a class of service, or a timestamp corresponding to a packet arrival time at the ingress port. ### Claim 41 (depends on 37) The network device of claim 37, wherein the collector device comprises a CPU and a memory in the network device. ### Claim 42 (depends on 37) The network device of claim 37, wherein the collector device is connected to the network device via a network. ### Claim 43 (depends on 37) The network device of claim 37, further comprising an analytics packet assembler configured to generate an analytics packet including the analytics information and send the analytics packet from one of the egress ports.