Multiple test site bandwidth limit measurement

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9331925-B2
Application number	US-201313797256-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 12, 2013
Priority date	Mar 12, 2013
Publication date	May 3, 2016
Grant date	May 3, 2016

Abstract

In one embodiment, methods are described to measure bandwidth limits through multiple test sites. A testing quantity of network packets is generated, the network packets are sent through a service provider network to a plurality of receivers at a testing transmission rate that exceeds an upstream transmission rate limit of the service provider network, a report indicating a received number of packets is received from each of the plurality of receivers, and an upstream transmission rate limit of the service provider network is determined based on the testing transmission and the reports. By using multiple test sites, potential bottlenecks at any one test site are reduced. A similar method can be used to calculate a downstream transmission rate limit. Once measured, the bandwidth limits may be used to adjust quality of service on an edge router or compared against a known service level agreement of the service provider network.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A data processing method comprising:
generating a testing quantity of network packets;
sending the network packets through a service provider network to a first receiver and a second receiver at a testing transmission rate that exceeds an estimated upstream transmission rate limit of the service provider network;
receiving, from the first receiver, a first report indicating a first received number of packets;
receiving, from the second receiver, a second report indicating a second received number of packets;
determining a first loss rate using the first report and a second loss rate using the second report;
determining a measured upstream transmission rate limit of the service provider network based on the testing transmission rate and an average of the first loss rate and the second loss rate;
wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first report further indicates packet loss information derived from a receipt time and a sequence number for each of the network packets received at the first receiver.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the determining also determines a burst size of the service provider network.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first received number of packets is for a last predetermined number of network packets received at the first receiver.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more computing devices comprise a wide area network (WAN) edge device.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the testing transmission rate is at least 90% of a line rate of the WAN edge device.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the network packets includes a specific differentiated services code point (DSCP) value.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising adjusting a quality of service (QoS) for network devices connected to the one or more computing devices in response to the determining of the upstream transmission rate limit.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising comparing the upstream transmission rate limit to a service level agreement (SLA) of the service provider network and performing an action if a difference from the comparing exceeds a threshold.

10. A data processing method comprising:
requesting a testing quantity of network packets to be sent at a testing transmission rate from a first sender and a second sender;
receiving the network packets through a service provider network from the first sender and the second sender, wherein the testing transmission rate of the first sender and the second sender exceeds an estimated downstream transmission rate limit of the service provider network;
generating a first report indicating a first received number of packets from the first sender;
generating a second report indicating a second received number of packets from the second sender;
determining a first loss rate using the first report and a second loss rate using the second report;
determining a measured downstream transmission rate limit of the service provider network based on the testing transmission rate and an average of the first loss rate and the second loss rate;
wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the one or more computing devices comprise a wide area network (WAN) edge device.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein each of the network packets includes a specific differentiated services code point (DSCP) value.

13. The method of claim 10 further comprising adjusting a quality of service (QoS) for network devices connected to the one or more computing devices in response to the determining of the downstream transmission rate limit.

14. The method of claim 10 further comprising comparing the downstream transmission rate limit to a service level agreement (SLA) of the service provider network and performing an action if a difference from the comparing exceeds a threshold.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing one or more instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform:
generating a testing quantity of network packets;
sending the network packets through a service provider network to a first receiver and a second receiver at a testing transmission rate that exceeds an estimated upstream transmission rate limit of the service provider network;
receiving, from the first receiver, a first report indicating a first received number of packets;
receiving, from the second receiver, a second report indicating a second received number of packets;
determining a first loss rate using the first report and a second loss rate using the second report;
determining a measured upstream transmission rate limit of the service provider network based on the testing transmission rate and an average of the first loss rate and the second loss rate.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein each of the network packets includes a specific differentiated services code point (DSCP) value.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 further comprising instructions which, when executed, cause the one or more processors to perform: adjusting a quality of service (QoS) for network devices in response to the determining of the upstream transmission rate limit.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 further comprising instructions which, when executed, cause the one or more processors to perform: comparing the upstream transmission rate limit to a service level agreement (SLA) of the service provider network and performing an action if a difference from the comparing exceeds a threshold.

Assignees

• Cisco Tech Inc

Inventors

• Patel Rahul
• Sreenath Sanjay

Classifications

• H04L43/10 Primary

  Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route · CPC title

• H04L43/0888

  Throughput · CPC title