Network latency analysis packet and method
A packet and a method for analyzing network latency are disclosed. The disclosed systems and methods measure the latency between nodes in a network and do so while using less bandwidth and processing than traditional methods by using a packet to traverse a network and collect timestamps at various nodes so that the delay in transit time between nodes can be calculated when the packet returns to a server.
1. A method for processing a packet in a network at a node, the method comprising:
receiving the packet at the node;
parsing the packet to obtain data about the packet;
reading a field in the packet to determine whether the packet is an administrative packet used for measuring network latency;
marking the packet with a first timestamp;
determining a next node for the packet to be sent to;
sending the packet to the next node in the network;
determining whether the packet has a multiplier associated with the node;
determining that a next node for the packet to be sent to has been previously visited by the packet; and
indicating that the packet has returned to the next node which has been previously visited by the packet by decrementing the multiplier associated with the node.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein reading a field in the packet to determine whether the packet is an administrative packet used for measuring network latency comprises examining a flag to determine whether the packet is the administrative packet used for measuring network latency.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein parsing the packet to obtain data about the packet comprises parsing class of service information associated with the packet.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising marking the packet with a second timestamp to indicate when the packet is sent to the next node, wherein the packet is marked with the first timestamp when the node receives the packet.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the next node for the packet to be sent to is listed immediately after a first identifier associated with the node.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining a next node for the packet to be sent to comprises:
determining whether the packet has enough room remaining in memory of the packet to obtain a second timestamp for the next node;
in response to determining that the packet has enough room remaining in the memory of the packet to obtain the second timestamp, determining the next node by randomly selecting another node in the network that is connected to the node; and
in response to determining that the packet does not have enough room remaining in the memory of the packet to obtain the second timestamp, sending the packet back to a server that can process the first timestamp from the packet to determine network delay.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the packet is received using internet protocol.
8. A method of measuring network latency, the method comprising:
receiving the packet at a first node;
determining whether the packet is an administrative packet used for measuring the network latency;
marking the packet with a first timestamp when the packet is received at the first node;
determining whether the packet has enough room remaining in memory of the packet to obtain a second timestamp from a second node;
in response to determining that the packet has enough room remaining in the memory of the packet to obtain the second timestamp from the second node, sending the packet to the second node; and
in response to determining that the packet does not have enough room remaining in the memory of the packet to obtain the second timestamp from the second node, sending the packet to a server for measuring the network latency.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the second node is connected to the first node and is randomly selected by the first node.
10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the packet comprises a multiplier field indicating a number of times the packet is to traverse a path between the first node and the second node, wherein the multiplier field is decremented each time the packet traverses the path.