Granted Patent B2

US 8,717,911 · App. 11/809,536 · Granted May 6, 2014

Inventors: Michael K. Bugenhagen (Olathe, KS); Robert J. Morrill (Overland Park, KS); William L. Wiley (Overland Park, KS)

Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC

Abstract

Claims (57)

1. A network communications device, comprising:

an input/output (I/O) unit configured to communicate data packets to and from a communications network; and

at least one module configured to:

count total data packets being communicated via said I/O unit during a time period to determine a total data packet count;

distinguish the total data packets between real-time data packets that include real-time content and non-real-time data packets that do not include real-time content;

count at least one of data packets that include real-time content to determine a real-time data packet count and data packets that do not include real-time content to determine a non-real-time data packet count that are communicated via said I/O unit during the time period, wherein the real-time data packet count is a count of only data packets that include real-time content, wherein the total data packet count equals the real-time data packet count plus the non-real-time data packet count;

determine bandwidth of total data packets being communicated via said I/O unit;

determine bandwidth corresponding to the real-time data packet count;

determine bandwidth reservation use information;

concatenate an indicia representative of the bandwidth of data packets corresponding to the real-time data packet count and the bandwidth reservation use information to produce a modified data packet; and

transmitting the modified data packet to a second network communication device.

2. The network communications device according to claim 1 , wherein the data packet to which the indicia is concatenated is a performance information data packet.

3. The network communications device according to claim 1 , wherein the determination of the bandwidth of data packets including real-time content is based on a number of performance information data packets received during the time period.

4. The network communications device according to claim 3 , wherein the performance information data packets are IEEE standard 802.1AG data packets.

5. The network communications device according to claim 1 , wherein said at least one module includes a modified ITU-T Y.1731 module configured to separately count the total data packets and data packets including real-time content.

6. The network communications device according to claim 1 , wherein the third network communications device is configured to monitor performance of other network nodes.

7. The network communications device according to claim 1 , wherein said at least one module is further configured to convert the data packets from a first communications protocol to a second communications protocol.

8. The network communications device according to claim 1 , wherein said at least one module is further configured to operate as a firewall.

9. The network communications device according to claim 1 , wherein said at least one module is further configured to determine at least one transmission performance characteristic of the data packets including real-time content being communicated via said I/O unit.

10. The network communications device according to claim 1 , wherein communication of the indicia is event triggered.

11. A method for monitoring transmission characteristics on a packet network, said method comprising:

monitoring data packets being communicated over a network node segment of a packet network;

distinguish the data packets into real-time data packets that include real-time content and non-real-time data packets that do not include real-time content;

counting the real-time data packets being communicated over the network node segment during a time period;

determining bandwidth of the real-time data packets during the time period;

counting total data packets being communicated over the network node segment during the time period;

determining bandwidth of total data packets being communicated over the network node segment during the time period;

storing an indicia representative of bandwidth of real-time data packets and total data packets;

determining at least one transmission performance characteristic of the real-time data packets;

concatenate the indicia representative of the at least one transmission performance characteristic of the communicated real-time data packets to a data packet payload to produce a modified data packet; and

transmitting the modified data.

12. The method according to claim 11 , wherein determining the at least one transmission performance characteristic of real-time data packets includes determining at least one of percent loss, jitter, and delay.

13. The method according to claim 11 , further comprising:

determining a time period from performance information data packets being communicated over the network node segment; and

determining the bandwidth of the real-time and total data packets being communicated over the network node segment based on the time period determined from the counted performance information data packets.

14. The method according to claim 13 , further wherein counting performance information data packets includes counting 802.1 AG data packets.

15. The method according to claim 13 , further comprising communicating an indicia of the bandwidth of the data packets including real-time content and total data packets to a network controller.

16. The method according to claim 11 , wherein concatenating the indicia into a data packet including concatenating the indicia into a performance information data packet.

17. The method according to claim 11 , wherein communicating indicia of the at least one transmission performance characteristic includes communicating the indicia in response to an event occurring.

18. The method according to claim 11 , wherein communicating the indicia of the at least one transmission performance characteristic in response to an event occurring includes determining that a threshold has been crossed by the at least one transmission performance characteristic.

19. A network communications device, comprising:

an input/output (I/O) unit configured to communicate data packets over a network node segment;

a memory unit configured to store network performance information associated with real-time data packets and total data packets communicated via said I/O unit; and

a processor configured to execute instructions to:

distinguish the total data packets between the real-time data packets that include real-time content and non-real-time data packets that do not include real-time content, count the real-time data packets being communicated over the network node segment during a time period;

determine bandwidth of the real-time data packets during the time period;

count total data packets being communicated over the network node segment during the time period;

determine bandwidth of total data packets being communicated over the network node segment during the time period;

communicate an indicia representative of bandwidth of the real-time data packets and total data packets; and

concatenate the network performance information associated with real-time data packets and total data packets to a data packet payload to produce a modified data packet.

20. The network communications device according to claim 19 , wherein the processor is further configured to execute instructions to collect the network performance information associated with real-time data packets communicated via said I/O unit.

21. The network communications device according to claim 19 , wherein the processor is further configured to execute instructions to:

count performance information data packets being communicated over the network node segment; and

determine the bandwidth of the real-time and total data packets being communicated over the network node segment based on the counted performance information data packets.

22. The network communications device according to claim 21 , wherein the performance information data packets are IEEE 802.1AG data packets.

23. The network communications device according to claim 19 , wherein the network performance information includes at least one of packet loss, jitter, and delay associated with data packets including real-time content communicated via said I/O unit communications.

24. The network communications device according to claim 19 , wherein the memory unit is further configured to store information indicative of bandwidth of the real-time data packets and total data packets communicated during a time period.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (8)