Intelligent collaboration across network systems
A network monitoring system and method for analyzing network traffic is provided. This network monitoring system and method employ flow monitoring to analyze the traffic flow inside a switching device. All message packets entering the switching device are filtered and then sampled. After message packets are sampled, the switching device generates reporting packets containing network information related to the sampled packets. These reporting packets are then transmitted to a monitor server for analysis. Generally, the monitor server is coupled to a number of the switching devices so that the overall performance of the network can be gathered and presented to the users.
1. A method of monitoring a switching device, comprising the steps of:
receiving message packets from a network;
controlling a flow of said received message packets;
sampling said controlled message packets; and
collecting data related to said sampled message packets, wherein said data collecting comprises:
sending reporting packets related to said collected data from said switching device to a monitor server; and
analyzing said reporting packets in said monitor server to determine at least one statistical characteristic of said switching device.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said switching device is a packet switch.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein said switching device is a router.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein said controlling of said message packets is based on destination information.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein said controlled message packets are sampled based on the number of said filtered message packets.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein said sampling is performed after destination interfaces are assigned to said controlled message packets.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein said controlled message packets are sampled based on time intervals between sampled message packets.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein said controlled message packets are only message packets addressed to enter said switching device.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein said message packets are sampled without regard for message packet type.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein said sampling comprises selecting less than all of the controlled message packets.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein said collected data relates only to said sampled message packets.
12. A method of monitoring a switching device, comprising the steps of:
receiving message packets from a network;
controlling a flow of said received message packets;
sampling said controlled message packets; and
collecting data related to said sampled message packets, wherein said collecting comprises:
analyzing said filtered message packets to determine at least one statistical characteristic of said switching device;
sending said statistical characteristic of said switching device to a monitor server; and
reporting said statistical characteristic of said switching device in said monitor server.
13. The method of claim 12 , wherein said switching device is a packer switch.
14. The method of claim 12 , wherein said switching device is a router.
15. The method of claim 12 , wherein said controlling of said message packets is based on destination information.
16. The method of claim 12 , wherein said controlled message packets are sampled based on the number of said filtered message packets.
17. The method of claim 12 , wherein said sampling is performed after destination interfaced are assigned to said controlled message packets.
18. The method of claim 12 , wherein said controlled message packets are sampled based on time intervals between sampled message packets.
19. The method of claim 12 , wherein said controlled message packets are only message packets addressed to enter said switching device.