General packet radio service tunnel performance monitoring

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9602383-B2
Application number	US-201313902162-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 24, 2013
Priority date	Oct 11, 2012
Publication date	Mar 21, 2017
Grant date	Mar 21, 2017

Abstract

Arrangements include methods and systems for enabling collection of end to end performance information of individual tunnels in a GPRS. According to one aspect, a GTP-U sender node is configured to provide to a GTP-U receiver node a sequence number for a G-PDU to enable determination of a first set of one-way performance data of a GTP-U tunnel to be monitored. The GTP-U sender node may further be configured to provide an exit timestamp for a G-PDU to enable determination of a second set of one-way performance data of the GTP-U tunnel to be monitored. Either one or both of the sender node and the receiver node may send G-PDU performance monitor records to a GTP-U performance monitor collector.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for enabling collection of end-to-end performance information for individual general packet radio system tunneling protocol user, GTP-U, tunnels established between GTP-U nodes, the system comprising:
a GTP-U sender node configured to:
provide a sequence number for each of a plurality of GTP protocol data units, G-PDU, to enable determination of a first set of one-way performance data of a GTP-U tunnel to be monitored;
exchange tunnel endpoint identifiers, TEID, with a GTP-U receiver node to select one GTP-U tunnel to be monitored at a time to enable selective detection of performance of individual GTP-U tunnels; and
send a request message to the GTP-U receiver node to configure an expected GTP-U performance monitoring behavior, the request message selectively specifying whether a performance monitoring, PM, collection method is one of a one point GTP-U collection method and a two point GTP-U collection method to indicate whether the GTP-U receiver node is an end node for collecting performance monitoring data.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the GTP-U sender node is further configured to provide an exit time stamp for a G-PDU, to enable determination of a second set of one-way performance data of the GTP-U tunnel to be monitored.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the second set of one-way performance data includes at least one of one-way packet delay and packet delay variation statistics.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first set of one-way performance data includes at least one of one-way packet loss, packet mis-ordering, and packet duplicate statistics.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the GTP-U sender node is further configured to initiate a sequence counter to assign a sequence number to each outgoing G-PDU for the GTP-U tunnel to be monitored.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the sequence number intended for performance monitoring is included in a GTP-U header.

7. The system of claim 2 , wherein the exit time stamp intended for performance monitoring is included in one of a GTP-U header and GTP-U extension header.

8. The system of claim 2 , further comprising:
a GTP-U performance monitor, PM, collector in communication with the GTP-U sender node, the GTP-U PM collector being configured to collect PM data from the GTP-U sender node, the PM data including the sequence number and exit time stamp of the G-PDU.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the request message further includes at least one of a subscriber reference identifier, packet loss threshold, an initial sequence number, a last sequence number, a number of packets to monitor, diffserv code point, DSCP, priority code point, PCP, and initial time-to-live, TTL.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the GTP-U sender node is further configured to receive a response message from the GTP-U receiver node at an end of the GTP-U tunnel to be monitored.

11. The system of Claim 1 , further comprising a control function, the control function being configured to receive a response message from the GTP-U receiver node at an end of the GTP-U tunnel to be monitored.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the GTP-U sender node is further configured to activate tunnel monitoring in one of a control mode and a data mode, wherein in the control mode, the GTP-U sender node is further configured to exchange control messages with the GTP-U receiver node at an end of the GTP-U tunnel to be monitored, and wherein in the data mode, the GTP-U sender node is further configured to signal a start of performance monitoring by including at least one of a sequence number and a time stamp in a G-PDU.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein in the data mode, the GTP-U sender node is further configured to signal a termination of performance monitoring by no longer including the at least one of the sequence number and the time stamp in a G-PDU.

14. The system of claim 2 , further comprising:
a GTP-U receiver node configured to receive the sequence number and the exit time stamp of the G-PDU and to compute an arrival time stamp indicating arrival of the G-PDU.

15. A system for enabling collection of end-to-end performance information for individual general packet radio system tunneling protocol user, GTP-U, tunnels established between GTP-U nodes, the system comprising:
a GTP-U receiver node configured to:
receive a sequence number for each of a plurality of GTP protocol data units, G-PDU;
exchange tunnel endpoint identifiers, TEID, with a GTP-U sender node to select one GTP-U tunnel to be monitored at a time to enable selective detection of performance of individual GTP-U tunnels; and
send a request message to the GTP-U receiver node to configure an expected GTP-U performance monitoring behavior, the request message selectively specifying whether a performance monitoring, PM, collection method is one of a one point GTP-U collection method and a two point GTP-U collection method to indicate whether the GTP-U receiver node is an end node for collecting performance monitoring data.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the GTP-U receiver node is further configured to receive an exit time stamp, and to assign an arrival time stamp to each received G-PDU.

17. The system of claim 15 , wherein the GTP-U receiver is further configured to trigger a notification of performance degradation based on a statistical analysis of the collected PM data.

18. The system of claim 15 , further comprising:
a GTP-U performance monitor, PM, collector in communication with the GTP-U receiver node, the GTP-U PM collector configured to collect PM data from the GTP-U receiver node, the PM data including the sequence number, an exit time stamp and an arrival time stamp.

19. The system of claim 18 , wherein the GTP-U PM collector is further configured to process data received from the GTP-U receiver node concerning performance of a GTP-U tunnel being monitored, the data including one of one-way packet delay, one-way packet delay variation, one-way packet loss, one-way packet mis-ordering, and the one-way packet duplicate statistics produced by the GTP-U receiver node.

20. The system of claim 18 , wherein the GTP-U PM collector is further configured to trigger a notification of performance degradation based on a statistical analysis of the collected PM data.

21. A method of collecting end-to-end performance data for individual general packet radio system tunneling protocol user, GTP-U, tunnels established between GTP-U nodes, the method comprising:
exchanging tunnel endpoint identifiers between a GTP-U receiver unit and a GTP-U sender unit to select one GTP-U tunnel to monitor at a time to enable selective detection of performance of individual GTP-U tunnels;
receiving at the GTP-U receiver unit at least one GTP protocol data unit, G-PDU, having an exit time stamp and a sequence number placed in a header by the GTP-U sender unit;
sending a request message to the GTP-U receiver node to configure an expected GTP-U performance monitoring behavior, the request message selectively specifying whether a performance monitoring, PM, collection method is one of a one point GTP-U collection method and a two point GTP-U collection method to indicate whether the GTP-U receiver node is an end node for collecting performance monitoring data;
assigning an arrival time stamp to each of the at least one G-PDU; and
determining at least one statistical metric concerning the at least one G-PDU based on at least one of the exit time stamp, the sequence number and the arrival tim

Assignees

• Ericsson Telefon Ab L M
• ERICSSON TELEFON AB L M (publ)

Inventors

• Baillargeon Steve

Classifications

• H04L43/0835 Primary

  One way packet loss · CPC title

• H04W24/08

  Testing, {supervising or monitoring} using real traffic · CPC title

• H04L43/087

  Jitter · CPC title

• H04L43/50 Primary

  Testing arrangements · CPC title

• H04L43/0858

  One way delays · CPC title