Technologies for sideband performance tracing of network traffic

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10135711-B2
Application number	US-201514979140-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 22, 2015
Priority date	Dec 22, 2015
Publication date	Nov 20, 2018
Grant date	Nov 20, 2018

Abstract

Technologies for tracing network performance include a network computing device configured to receive a network packet from a source endpoint node, process the received network packet, capture trace data corresponding to the network packet as it is processed by the network computing device, and transmit the received network packet to a target endpoint node. The network computing device is further configured to generate a trace data network packet that includes at least a portion of the captured trace data and transmit the trace data network packet to the destination endpoint node. The destination endpoint node is configured to monitor performance of the network by reconstructing a trace of the network packet based on the trace data of the trace data network packet. Other embodiments are described herein.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A network computing device for tracing network performance, the network computing device comprising:
one or more processors; and
one or more data storage devices having stored therein a plurality of instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the network computing device to:
receive a network packet generated by a source endpoint node;
process the received network packet;
capture trace data corresponding to the network packet as it is processed by the network computing device, wherein the trace data includes one or more characteristics of one or more components of the network computing device;
transmit the received network packet towards a target endpoint node;
generate, subsequent to having transmitted the received network packet, a trace data network packet that includes at least a portion of the captured trace data, wherein the at least a portion of the captured trace data included in the trace data network packet is usable by a destination endpoint node to monitor performance of the network; and
transmit the trace data network packet to the destination endpoint node.

2. The network computing device of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the network computing device to insert tagging information into the trace data network packet, wherein the tagging information is usable by the destination endpoint node to reconstruct a trace corresponding to the received network packet through the network.

3. The network computing device of claim 2 , wherein the tagging information includes at least one of source identifying information, destination identifying information, flow identifying information, path identifying information, a packet sequence number, and a time of interest.

4. The network computing device of claim 3 , wherein the time of interest includes at least one of a timestamp corresponding to an ingress time, a timestamp corresponding to an egress time, and a timestamp corresponding to a queued time.

5. The network computing device of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the network computing device to store the captured trace data to a trace buffer of the network computing device, wherein to generate the trace data network packet that includes at least a portion of the captured trace data comprises to (i) retrieve the at least a portion of the captured trace data and (ii) insert the retrieved portion of the captured trace data into the trace data network packet.

6. The network computing device of claim 1 , wherein the network packet includes a header, wherein to determine the trace data of the network packet to be captured comprises to determine the trace data based on a retrieved portion of the header of the network packet.

7. The network computing device of claim 1 , wherein to determine the trace data of the network packet to be captured comprises to determine the trace data based on a predetermined threshold, and wherein the predetermined threshold comprises at least one of an identifier associated with the network packet, a present usage percentage of a trace buffer, a duration of time, a time window, a number of network packets received, and a size of the network packet.

8. The network computing device of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the network computing device to compress the trace data based on at least one of a predetermined threshold and a tag associated with the trace data.

9. The network computing device of claim 1 , wherein to capture the trace data comprises to at least one of capture the trace data subsequent to a predetermined number of network packets having been received by the network computing device, capture the trace data at a trace buffer of the network computing device until a usage percentage exceeds a predetermined usage threshold, increment a counter of the network computing device, and compare a value associated with the network packet against a predetermined threshold.

10. The network computing device of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the network computing device to determine one or more performance tracing settings of the network packet, wherein to capture the trace data corresponding to the network packet comprises to capture the trace data based on the one or more performance tracing settings of the network packet.

11. The network computing device of claim 10 , wherein the one or more performance tracing settings includes at least one of an indication that indicates whether trace data collection is enabled, a type of the trace data to be collected, a size of the trace data to be collected, an indication whether to include tagging information with the trace data network packet, a type of the tagging information with which to tag the trace data network packet, and an indication that indicates whether to compress the trace data.

12. One or more non-transitory, computer-readable storage media comprising a plurality of instructions stored thereon that in response to being executed cause a network computing device to:
receive a network packet generated by a source endpoint node;
process the received network packet;
capture trace data corresponding to the network packet as it is processed by the network computing device, wherein the trace data includes one or more characteristics of one or more components of the network computing device;
transmit the received network packet to a target endpoint node;
generate, subsequent to having transmitted the received network packet, a trace data network packet that includes at least a portion of the captured trace data, wherein the at least a portion of the captured trace data included in the trace data network packet is usable by a destination endpoint node to monitor performance of the network; and
transmit the trace data network packet to the destination endpoint node.

13. The one or more non-transitory, computer-readable storage media of claim 12 , wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the network computing device to insert tagging information into the trace data network packet, wherein the tagging information is usable by the destination endpoint node to reconstruct a trace corresponding to the received network packet through the network.

14. The one or more non-transitory, computer-readable storage media of claim 13 , wherein the tagging information includes at least one of source identifying information, destination identifying information, flow identifying information, path identifying information, a packet sequence number, and a time of interest.

15. The one or more non-transitory, computer-readable storage media of claim 14 , wherein the time of interest includes at least one of a timestamp corresponding to an ingress time, a timestamp corresponding to an egress time, and a timestamp corresponding to a queued time.

16. The one or more non-transitory, computer-readable storage media of claim 12 , wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the network computing device to store the captured trace data to a trace buffer of the network computing device, wherein to generate the trace data network packet that includes at least a portion of the captured trace data comprises to (i) retrieve the at least a portion of the captured trace data and (ii) insert the retrieved portion of the captured trace data into the trace data network packet.

17. The one or more non-transitory, computer-readable storage media of claim 12 , wherein the network packet includes a header, wherein to determine the trace data of the network pac

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Zak Robert C
• Keppel David
• Dinan James

Classifications

• H04L43/0876

  Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level · CPC title

• H04L43/04

  Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation · CPC title

• H04L45/26

  Route discovery packet · CPC title

• H04L43/028

  by filtering · CPC title

• H04L43/106 Primary

  using time related information in packets, e.g. by adding timestamps · CPC title