Methods, systems, and computer readable media for monitoring latency and/or time-based data locations of multicast communications

1. A method for monitoring latency associated with multicast communications, the method comprising:

monitoring sequence numbers of multicast messages at a plurality of physical network locations, wherein the physical network locations are hops along at least one path in a network for the multicast messages;

at each physical network location, sending a report when a sequence number value for the multicast messages reaches a predetermined value, wherein the reports each include a sequence number associated with a monitored message and a time stamp of an arrival time at which the monitored message arrived at the respective physical network location, wherein the sequence number being reported is the same across each physical network location; and

at a latency determination server (LDS), receiving the reports and using the reports to generate an indication of relative latencies and/or time-based data locations across the physical network locations, wherein using the reports to generate an indication of relative latencies and/or time-based data locations across the physical network locations includes generating a latency metric based upon the time stamps in the reports indicating the arrival times at which the monitored message with the same sequence number was received at the physical network locations.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the predetermined value number is equal to a power of two.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein reporting a sequence number value comprises sending log messages to the LDS.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reports each include a monitored device ID and a flow ID.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the physical network locations correspond to one of a hop, a router, a switch, a hub, a bridge, a gateway, or a probe.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the multicast messages are generated by a multicast data messaging source.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the multicast messages include User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets or Pragmatic General Multicast (PGM) packets.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sequence numbers are pre-existing binary sequence numbers that are embedded within the multicast messages.

9. A system for monitoring latency associated with multicast communications, the system comprising:

a plurality of physical network locations for monitoring sequence numbers of multicast messages, wherein the physical network locations are hops along at least one path in a network for the multicast messages, wherein each physical network location is configured to send a report when a sequence number value for the multicast messages reaches a predetermined value, wherein the reports each include a sequence number associated with a monitored message and a time stamp of an arrival time at which the monitored message arrived at the respective physical network location, wherein the sequence number being reported is the same across each physical network location; and

a latency determination server (LDS) for receiving reports from the plurality of physical network locations and using the reports to generate an indication of a relative latencies and/or time-based data locations across the physical network locations, wherein using the reports to generate an indication of relative latencies and/or time-based data locations across the physical network locations includes generating a latency metric based upon the time stamps in the reports indicating the arrival times at which the monitored message with the same sequence number was received at the physical network locations.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the predetermined value number is equal to a power of two.

11. The system of claim 9 , wherein the reports include log messages.

12. The system of claim 9 , wherein the reports each include a monitored device ID and a flow ID.

13. The system of claim 9 , wherein the physical network locations correspond to one of a hop, a router, a switch, a hub, a bridge, a gateway, or a probe.

14. The system of claim 9 , wherein the multicast messages are generated by a multicast data messaging source.

15. The system of claim 9 , wherein the multicast messages include User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets or Pragmatic General Multicast (PGM) packets.

16. The system of claim 9 , wherein the sequence numbers are pre-existing binary sequence numbers that are embedded within the multicast messages.

17. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions embodied in the computer readable medium that when executed by a processor of a computer perform steps comprising:

monitoring sequence numbers of multicast messages at a plurality of physical network locations, wherein the physical network locations are hops along at least one path in a network for the multicast messages;

at each physical network location, sending a report when a sequence number value for the multicast messages reaches a predetermined value, wherein the reports each include a sequence number associated with a monitored message and a time stamp of an arrival time at which the monitored message arrived at the respective physical network location, wherein the sequence number being reported is the same across each physical network location; and

at a latency determination server (LDS), receiving the reports and using the reports to generate an indication of relative latencies and/or time-based data locations across the physical network locations, wherein using the reports to generate an indication of relative latencies and/or time-based data locations across the physical network locations includes generating a latency metric based upon the time stamps in the reports indicating the arrival times at which the monitored message with the same sequence number was received at the physical network locations.