Identification of candidate problem network entities

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10135704-B2
Application number	US-201414310974-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 20, 2014
Priority date	Jun 20, 2014
Publication date	Nov 20, 2018
Grant date	Nov 20, 2018

Abstract

The detection of network communication problems in networks that have multiple end nodes, and multiple transit nodes in between. One or more of the end nodes monitors one or more flows, creates associated flow information including performance information for each flow, and then reports the flow information. A system then estimates, for each of multiple flows within the network, a likely path that network traffic takes through that network. The system might then use performance information for each of the reported flows to identify at least one candidate problem network entity that is common amongst the estimated paths of the at least the subset of the plurality of flows.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. One or more computer hardware storage devices having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that are executable by one or more processors of a computing system to cause the computing system to implement a method that includes:
grouping together a flow of network communications, each network communication in the flow sharing one or more characteristics;
receiving flow information for the flow, the flow information comprising performance information and information regarding the one or more shared characteristics;
using the flow information to determine a plurality of candidate network travel paths for the flow, each of the plurality of candidate network travel paths (1) originating at a same first endpoint, (2) terminating at a same second endpoint, and (3) having associated therewith a determined probability of actually being traversed by the flow's network communications, wherein determining a first candidate network travel path that is included in the plurality of candidate network travel paths includes:
identifying a first node and a second node that are both selected as candidate nodes for the first candidate network travel path;
determining that a set of multiple different links are established between the first node and the second node, each of the multiple different links connecting the first node with the second node;
based on the flow information, determining that a particular one link established between the first node and the second node is likely to be used for transmitting network communications of the flow; and
selecting the particular one link for inclusion in the first candidate network travel path;

after determining the plurality of candidate network travel paths, determining that a particular network entity is shared between at least some of the plurality of candidate network travel paths;
after determining that the particular network entity is shared between the at least some of the plurality of candidate network travel paths, determining that the particular network entity is a problem network entity by analyzing a performance threshold associated with the particular network entity; and
transmitting a message to at least one node neighboring the particular network entity that causes the at least one node to reduce or eliminate use of the particular network entity or at least one flow routed through the particular network entity.

2. The one or more hardware storage devices of claim 1 , wherein the particular network entity comprises a transit node in the network.

3. The one or more hardware storage devices of claim 1 , wherein the particular network entity comprises a network link in the network.

4. The one or more hardware storage devices of claim 1 , wherein the problem network entity comprises a plurality of candidate problem network entities.

5. The one or more hardware storage devices of claim 1 , the performance information comprising a retransmission statistic.

6. The one or more hardware storage devices of claim 1 , the performance information comprising a latency statistic.

7. The one or more hardware storage devices of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of candidate network travel paths is either an anticipated network travel path or an actual network travel path.

8. The one or more hardware storage devices of claim 1 , the flow information being received from the first endpoint or the second endpoint.

9. The one or more computer hardware storage devices of claim 1 , wherein the computer-executable instructions are further configured to cause the computer system to reconfigure at least a portion of the network so as to mitigate problems associated with any problem network entities.

10. The one or more computer hardware storage devices of claim 1 , wherein determining the plurality of candidate network travel paths is accomplished by:
creating a query, the query at least including an identified shared characteristic of each network communication included within the flow; and
sending the query to each transit node included within a set of transit nodes, wherein the query causes each transit node in the set to use the shared characteristic to identify where each transit node in the set would forward a particular network communication having the shared characteristic.

11. The one or more computer hardware storage devices of claim 10 , wherein the performance information includes a standard deviation pertaining to a time taken for a particular network communication to traverse a particular network travel path.

12. The one or more computer hardware storage devices of claim 1 , wherein the problem network entity includes corrupted input packets and link status bouncing.

13. A computer system for identifying a candidate source of network performance insufficiency in order to enable greater functionality of a computer network, the computer system comprising:
one or more processors; and
one or more hardware storage devices having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that are executable by the one or more processors to cause the computer system to implement a method that includes:
grouping together a flow of network communications, each network communication in the flow sharing one or more characteristics;
receiving flow information for the flow, the flow information comprising performance information and information regarding the one or more shared characteristics;
using the flow information to determine a plurality of candidate network travel paths for the flow, each of the plurality of candidate network travel paths (1) originating at a same first endpoint, (2) terminating at a same second endpoint, and (3) having associated therewith a determined probability of actually being traversed by the flow's network communications, wherein determining a first candidate network travel path that is included in the plurality of candidate network travel paths includes:
identifying a first node and a second node that are both selected as candidate nodes for the first candidate network travel path;
determining that a set of multiple different links are established between the first node and the second node, each of the multiple different links connecting the first node with the second node;
based on the flow information, determining that a particular one link established between the first node and the second node is likely to be used for transmitting network communications of the flow; and
selecting the particular one link for inclusion in the first candidate network travel path;

after determining the plurality of candidate network travel paths, determining that a particular network entity is shared between at least some of the plurality of candidate network travel paths;
after determining that the particular network entity is shared between the at least some of the plurality of candidate network travel paths, determining that the particular network entity is a problem network entity by analyzing a performance threshold associated with the particular network entity; and
transmitting a message to at least one node neighboring the particular network entity that causes the at least one node to reduce or eliminate use of the particular network entity or at least one flow routed through the particular network entity.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein execution of the computer-executable instructions further causes the computer system to:
take mitigation action against the particular network entity.

15. The system of claim 13 , wherein each of the plurality of candidate network travel paths is either an anticipated network travel path or an

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Power Adrian
• Hill Peter John

Classifications

• H04L12/1863

  comprising mechanisms for improved reliability, e.g. status reports (arrangements for detecting or preventing errors by carrying supervisory signal the return channel H04L1/16) · CPC title

• H04L12/00

  Data switching networks (interconnection of, or transfer of information or other signals between, memories, input/output devices or central processing units G06F13/00) · CPC title

• H04L41/0677

  Localisation of faults · CPC title

• H04L43/0852

  Delays · CPC title

• H04L43/16

  Threshold monitoring · CPC title