Precise statistics computation for communication networks

1. A method for accurately measuring one or more network performance statistics during one or more sampling periods, comprising:

receiving a data packet at a network interface via a transmission link of a network device;

processing said data packet to identify a flow information and a time of arrival;

transmitting over a databus said data packet, along with a metadata comprising said flow information and said time of arrival, to a sample processing module;

replaying the reception of said data packet at said network interface based on the relative speed of the transmission link and the databus and said time of arrival;

incrementing a number of bytes received for said data packet for a first sampling period;

starting a second sampling period at a predetermined time and incrementing a number of bytes received for said data packet for said second sampling period, if said replaying is not completed;

processing said number of bytes received for said data packet for said first sampling period into a first sampling period statistics; and

processing said number of bytes received for said data packet for said second sampling period into a second sampling period statistics.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said processing is done based on the flow information.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said replaying is done virtually based on the transmission link speed and time of arrival.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said processing is done within the network device.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said processing is done remotely from the network device.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein some data packets are processed within the network device and some data packets are processed remotely from the network device.