Apparatus and method to efficiently use the ptp timestamp for one-way delay and delay variation measurement in ip networks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017005902-A1
Application number	US-201514788188-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 30, 2015
Priority date	Dec 31, 2014
Publication date	Jan 5, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method is implemented by a network device to establish a one-way active measurement protocol (OWAMP) test session to verify that a session-sender and session-reflector support a timestamp format extension including a Precision Time Protocol Version 2 (PTPv2) timestamp format. The PTPv2 timestamp format is to be utilized in place of a Network Time Protocol (NTP) timestamp format. The network device acts as a control-client that communicates with a server to establish an OWAMP test session between the session-sender and the session-receiver.

First claim

1 . A method implemented by a network device to establish a one-way active measurement protocol (OWAMP) test session to verify that a session-sender and session-reflector support a timestamp format extension including a Precision Time Protocol Version 2 (PTPv2) timestamp format, the PTPv2 timestamp format to be utilized in place of a Network Time Protocol (NTP) timestamp format, the network device acting as a control-client that communicates with a server to establish an OWAMP test session between the session-sender and the session-receiver, the method comprising:
opening a transmission control protocol (TCP) connection to the server; receiving a server greeting message from the server, wherein the server greeting message includes an indication of whether the session-receiver is capable of interpreting timestamps in the PTPv2 timestamp format where the session-receiver supports the PTPv2 timestamp format extension to OWAMP; checking whether the session-receiver supports the PTPv2 timestamp format extension to OWAMP; configuring the session-sender to set timestamps using a timestamp format that the session-sender can set and the session-receiver can interpret in response to determining that the session-receiver supports the PTPv2 timestamp format extension to OWAMP; sending an extended set-up-response message to the server in response to determining that the session-receiver supports the PTPv2 timestamp format extension to OWAMP, wherein the extended set-up-response message includes an indication of a timestamp format that the session-sender can set and the session-receiver can interpret; and receiving a server-start message from the server.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
configuring the session-sender to set timestamps using the NTP timestamp format in response to determining that the session-receiver does not support the PTPv2 timestamp format extension to OWAMP and the session-sender is capable of setting timestamps in the NTP timestamp format.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
closing a TCP connection with the server in response to determining that the session-receiver does not support the PTPv2 timestamp format extension to OWAMP and the session-sender is not capable of setting timestamps in the NTP timestamp format.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
sending a non-extended set-up-response message to the server in response to determining that the session-receiver does not support the PTPv2 timestamp format extension to OWAMP.

5 . A method implemented by a network device to establish a one-way active measurement protocol (OWAMP) test session to verify that a session-sender and session-reflector support a timestamp format extension including a Precision Time Protocol Version 2 (PTPv2) timestamp format, the PTPv2 timestamp format to be utilized in place of a Network Time Protocol (NTP) timestamp format, the network device acting as a server that communicates with a control-client to establish an OWAMP test session between the session-sender and the session-receiver, the method comprising:
receiving a transmission control protocol (TCP) connection request from the control-client; sending a server greeting message to the control-client, wherein the server greeting message includes an indication of whether the session-receiver is capable of interpreting timestamps in the PTPv2 timestamp format; receiving a set-up-response message from the control-client, wherein the set-up-response message includes an indication of a timestamp format that the session-sender can set and the session-receiver can interpret where the session-sender supports PTPv2 timestamp format extension to OWAMP; checking whether the session-sender supports the PTPv2 timestamp format extension to OWAMP; determining that the session-sender will set timestamps using the PTPv2 timestamp format indicated by the received set-up-response message in response to determining that the session-sender supports the PTPv2 timestamp format extension to OWAMP; and sending a server-start message to the control-client.

6 . The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
determining that the session-sender will set timestamps using the NTP timestamp format in response to determining that the session-sender does not support the PTPv2 timestamp format extension to OWAMP.

7 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the indication of whether the session-receiver is capable of interpreting timestamps in the PTPv2 timestamp format are encoded as a single bit in a modes field of the server greeting message.

8 . A network device configured to establish a one-way active measurement protocol (OWAMP) test session to verify that a session-sender and a session-reflector support a timestamp format extension including a Precision Time Protocol Version 2 (PTPv2) timestamp format, the PTPv2 timestamp format to be utilized in place of a Network Time Protocol (NTP) timestamp format, the network device to act as a control-client that communicates with a server to establish an OWAMP test session between the session-sender and the session-reflector, the network device comprising:
a non-transitory machine readable medium to store an extended active network performance measurement protocol component; and a processor communicatively coupled to the non-transitory machine readable medium, the processor configured to execute the extended active network performance measurement protocol component, the extended active network performance measurement protocol component configured to open a transmission control protocol (TCP) connection to the server, receive a server greeting message from the server, wherein the server greeting message includes an indication of whether the session-receiver is capable of interpreting timestamps in the PTPv2 timestamp format where the session-receiver supports PTPv2 timestamp format extension to OWAMP, check whether the session-receiver supports the PTPv2 timestamp format extension to OWAMP, configure the session-sender to set timestamps using a timestamp format that the session-sender can set and the session-receiver can interpret in response to determining that the session-receiver supports the PTPv2 timestamp format extension to OWAMP, send an extended set-up-response message to the server in response to determining that the session-receiver supports the PTPv2 timestamp format extension to OWAMP, wherein the extended set-up-response message includes a single bit indication of a timestamp format that the session-sender can set and the session-receiver can interpret, and receive a server-start message from the server.

9 . A network device configured to establish a one-way active measurement protocol (OWAMP) test session to verify that a session-sender and a session-reflector support a timestamp format extension including a Precision Time Protocol Version 2 (PTPv2) timestamp format, the PTPv2 timestamp format to be utilized in place of a Network Time Protocol (NTP) timestamp format, the network device to act as a server that communicates with a control-client to establish an OWAMP test session between the session-sender and the session-reflector, the network device comprising:
a non-transitory machine readable medium to store an extended active network performance measurement protocol component; and a processor communicatively coupled to the non-transitory machine readable medium, the processor configured to execute the extended active network performance measurement protocol component, the extended active network performance measurement protocol component configured to receive a transmission control protocol (TCP) connection request from the control-client, send a server greeting message to the control-client, wherein the server greeting message in

Assignees

• Ericsson Telefon Ab L M

Inventors

• Mirsky Gregory

Classifications

• H04L43/106 Primary

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

• H04L67/42

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L67/01

  Protocols · CPC title

• H04L65/40

  Support for services or applications · CPC title

• H04L9/40

  Network security protocols · CPC title