Note: Within nine months of the publication of the mention of the grant of the European patent in the European Patent Bulletin, any person may give notice to the European Patent Office of opposition to that patent, in accordance with the
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EUROPEAN PATENT SPECIFICATION
(45) Date of publication and mentionof the grant of the patent:
18.01.2012 Bulletin 2012/03
(21) Application number: 02792520.5
(22) Date of filing: 26.12.2002
(51) Int Cl.:
H04L 12/66(2006.01)
(86) International application number:
PCT/US2002/041262
(87) International publication number:
WO 2003/060643 (24.07.2003 Gazette 2003/30)
(54) VOICE OVER INTERNET PROTOCOL (VOIP) NETWORK PERFORMANCE MONITOR
NETZWERKLEISTUNGSÜBERWACHER FÜR DAS SPRACHE-ÜBER-INTERNET-PROTOKOLL (VOIP)
CONTROLEUR DE PERFORMANCE D’UN RESEAU DE SYSTEME VOCAL SUR L’INTERNET (VOIP)
(84) Designated Contracting States:
AT BE BG CH CY CZ DE DK EE ES FI FR GB GR IE IT LI LU MC NL PT SE SI SK TR
(30) Priority: 04.01.2002 US 38837
(43) Date of publication of application:
14.09.2005 Bulletin 2005/37
(73) Proprietor: Level 3 Communications, LLC Broomfield, CO 80021 (US)
(72) Inventors:
• MITSUMORI, Derek, Hisami Waltham, MA 02453 (US)
• CHANG, Sujin, Catherine Stow, MA 01775 (US) • PAN, Kwang-Shan
Acton, MA 01775 (US)
(74) Representative: Martin, Philip John et al Marks & Clerk LLP
62-68 Hills Road Cambridge CB2 1LA (GB) (56) References cited: EP-A- 1 146 687 WO-A-01/35584 WO-A-01/37486 WO-A-01/80492 US-A1- 2002 051 464 US-A1- 2002 141 389 US-A1- 2002 141 392
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 Description BACKGROUND
[0001] The invention relates to a Voice over IP (VoIP) network performance monitor.
[0002] Packet-based networks, in particular, VoIP net-works, are rapidly emerging as a viable alternative to traditional telephony (that is, circuit switched networks). VoIP is viewed as an attractive option for voice transport in that it allows live voice conversations to be integrated with existing IP data and image applications. To be a truly competitive alternative, VoIP must emulate the perform-ance of traditional telephony and do so using a protocol that was optimized for data traffic. The characteristics of data traffic are quite different from those of voice traffic.
[0003] Unlike data traffic, voice traffic is extremely in-tolerant of delay and delay variation (or "jitter"), as well as, packet loss. Much work has been done in the area of packet delivery to provide end-to-end Quality of Serv-ice (QoS). ServServ-ice level agreements (SLAs) for VoIP, like those for conventional data IP networks, tend to be based on conventional data network metrics - that is, guaran-teed service levels are expressed solely in terms of pack-et level performance, for example, packpack-et loss, jitter, and round-trip delay.
[0004] Traditional network performance measurement tools use Packet InterNet Gropers (PINGs) to measure packet loss, jitter and round-trip delay. However, VoIP networks are packet-based networks that transmit data in one-way steady streams of User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets, which PINGing tools cannot simulate. In addition, traditional network monitoring systems accept performance data that has been averaged over an ex-tended period of time, such as a day or a month. While such measurements are acceptable for data transmis-sions, which are typically TCP in nature, the real-time nature of VoIP service makes daily and/or monthly aver-aging of performance results inaccurate in representing a VoIP network user’s experience of the service.
[0005] Examples of prior art arrangements are dis-closed in International patent applications Nos. WO01/37486 (Loren Network Management et al) and WO 01/80492 (Telchemy, Inc.)
SUMMARY
[0006] The invention comprises a method for deriving packet delivery statistics from a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) stream simulating a service level provided by a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network as set out in claim 1.
[0007] A first client terminal connected to the VoIP net-work generates the UDP stream. In certain embodi-ments, generating a UDP stream includes selecting a service level and adjusting payload sizes and bit rates of the UDP packets according to the selected service level.
[0008] In certain embodiments, the method also
in-cludes setting an IP precedence bit to specify a class of service for each UDP packet.
[0009] The UDP stream is transmitted by a first client terminal connected to the VoIP network to a second client terminal connected to the VoIP network. The packet de-livery statistics are derived from the UDP stream by a first client terminal connected to the VoIP network.
[0010] In certain embodiments, deriving packet deliv-ery statistics includes measuring packet loss of the UDP stream at each first pre-defined interval. In certain em-bodiments, deriving packet delivery statistics further in-cludes measuring jitter of the UDP stream at each first pre-defined interval.
[0011] In certain embodiments, deriving packet deliv-ery statistics includes measuring round-trip delay of the UDP stream at each first pre-defined interval. The net-work performance statistics are generated by a monitor-ing device connected the VoIP network.
[0012] The method also includes generating a graph-ical report showing a distribution of the derived packet delivery statistics over the second pre-defined interval. A first client terminal is connected to a first VoIP Point of Presence (VoIP PoP) on the VoIP network and a second client terminal is connected to a second VoIP PoP on the VoIP network and the method also includes triggering a traceroute that traces a route between the first VoIP PoP and the second VoIP PoP if any one of the network per-formance statistics exceeds a pre-configured threshold.
[0013] According to another aspect of the invention, a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network performance testing system is defined in claim 10.
[0014] The UDP stream is generated by a first client terminal connected to the VoIP network.
[0015] In certain embodiments, generating includes controlling the first client terminal to select a service level and generate a UDP stream having payload sizes and bit rates corresponding to the selected service level.
[0016] In certain embodiments, system also includes controlling the first client terminal to set an IP precedence bit to specify a class of service for each UDP packet.
[0017] In certain embodiments, the system includes controlling the monitoring device to trigger an alarm if any one of the network performance statistics exceeds a pre-configured threshold.
[0018] The first client terminal is connected to a first VoIP Point of Presence (VoIP PoP) on the VoIP network and the second client terminal is connected to a second VoIP PoP on the VoIP network, the system also including controlling the monitoring device to trigger a traceroute that traces a route between the first VoIP PoP and the second VoIP PoP if any one of the network performance statistics exceeds a pre-configured threshold.
[0019] The system may also include controlling the first client terminal to store results of the traceroute in a tracer-oute file, wherein the results comprise Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of each router in the route, and send the traceroute file to the monitoring device.
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lowing advantages. The invention enables a VoIP-simu-lated UDP stream to be generated between every pos-sible pair of VoIP Points of Presence (VoIP PoPs) for use in testing the performance of a VoIP network. The inven-tion generates and reports performance results in a man-ner that reflects the real-time nature of the VoIP services offered by the VoIP network. With these performance results, a network operator can assess the quality of the VoIP network’s services on a daily basis for use with Service Level Agreements, as well as, identify possible problem areas in the VoIP network that may affect per-formance.
[0021] The details of one or more embodiments of the invention are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features, objects, and ad-vantages of the invention will be apparent from the de-scription and drawings, and from the claims.
DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
[0022]
FIG 1 is a block diagram illustrating a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network performance test topology.
FIG 2 is a flowchart of a process for testing the per-formance of a VoIP network.
FIG 3 shows a sample graphical user interface in accordance with the present invention.
[0023] Like reference symbols in the various drawings indicate like elements.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0024] In one exemplary commercial setting, as shown in FIG 1, a network infrastructure 100 of a VoIP network 102 is maintained by a VoIP network operator (not shown), such as Genuity Inc. of Woburn, MA, and made available to that VoIP network operator’s customers (not shown), for example, retail service providers who use the infrastructure and related services of the VoIP network operator to provide VoIP services to end users. In a large-scale operation, the network operator supports a large number of VoIP Points of Presence (VoIP PoPs) 104, in different geographic regions for coverage of a larger ter-ritory, for example, national level coverage. Each VoIP PoP 104 provides a point of entry to and termination from the VoIP network 102.
[0025] The network operator monitors the perform-ance of the VoIP network 102 through the use of a VoIP-performance monitor server (or VoIP-performance monitor server) 106 and VoIP-performance monitor clients (per-formance monitor clients) 108 deployed at VoIP PoPs 104 throughout the network 102. Each of the perform-ance monitor clients 108 is configured to generate VoIP-simulated UDP streams to others of the performance monitor clients 108 over the VoIP network 102, and
per-form network parameter and perper-formance measure-ments (collectively called "performance data"). Prefera-bly, a VoIP-simulated UDP stream is produced by the performance monitor client 108 for each level of service as determined by the type of codec (i.e., coder/decoder) used by a VoIP communications device that is performing the voice encoding and decoding operations at the VoIP PoP 104. In the VoIP PoP 104a shown in FIG 1, a gate-way 110 is used to implement one or more coding schemes to support voice encoding/decoding between protocols of the VoIP network 102 and a conventional telephony network, such as a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) 112.
[0026] Types of codecs include, but need not be limited to, the following: waveform codecs, source codecs, and hybrid codecs. With waveform codecs, an incoming voice signal is sampled, coded and the coded samples con-verted to quantized values, which are used to reconstruct the original voice signal. Waveform codecs (e.g., G 711 and G 726) produce high quality sound but consume a significant amount of bandwidth. Source codecs try to match an incoming voice signal to a mathematical model of speech generation. That model is used to reconstruct the original voice signal. The source codec operates at low bit rates but tends to produce poor quality sound. Hybrid codecs (e.g., G 729 and G 723) use some amount of waveform matching as well as knowledge of how the original sound was generated. They tend to provide fairly good quality sound at lower bit rates than waveform co-decs. Due to its lower bandwidth requirements, G.729 is the codec of choice for VoIP network performance test-ing.
[0027] FIG. 2 shows a process 200 implemented by the performance monitor server 106 and the performance monitor clients 108. The performance monitor client 108a is configured to generate and transmit (202) a VoIP-sim-ulated UDP stream to every VoIP PoP 104 in the VoIP network 102, including the VoIP PoP 104b having a per-formance monitor client 108b. In one implementation, the performance monitor client 108a in VoIP PoP 104a is configured to automatically start a new 24-hour testing session, say, for example, every morning after midnight, by generating and transmitting a UDP stream to the per-formance monitor client 108b in VoIP PoP 104b. The performance monitor client 108a collects (204) samples of raw performance data (e.g., packet loss measure-ments, jitter measuremeasure-ments, and round-trip delay meas-urements) on the incoming UDP stream at pre-defined intervals, for example, 10-second intervals. Thus, each sample contains 10-seconds worth of data.
[0028] The performance monitor server 106 polls (206) the performance monitor client 108a at pre-defined inter-vals, for example, at 15-minute intervals to gather the samples of raw data. The length of the collection interval and the polling interval may be set at any number that provides a sufficiently large sample size. The perform-ance monitor server 106 can be designed to process (208) each sample’s raw data to calculate the average,
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maximum, and minimum packet loss over the 15-minute period. Similar calculations can be made based on the jitter measurements and the round-trip delay measure-ments. Once processed, the performance monitor server 106 generates a time stamped 15-minute summary re-port that includes these calculations, as well as, histo-grams that show the distribution of the packet loss, jitter, and round-trip delay measurements during that particular 15-minute testing window. It should be noted that the data points used for the calculations and the histograms correspond to the 10-second samples. The timestamp indicates both the time and date associated with the "start" and "end" of a 15-minute testing window.
[0029] In one implementation, the performance moni-tor server 106 examines (210) the average and maximum values in the 15-minute summary report and triggers (212) an alarm, such as an e-mail to an employee of the network operator, if an average value or a maximum val-ue exceeds a configurable threshold. In another imple-mentation, the performance monitor server 106 exam-ines (214) the average and maximum values in the 15-minute summary report and triggers a traceroute be-tween the appropriate VoIP PoP pair (in this case, VoIP PoPs 104a and 104b) if an average value or maximum value exceeds a configurable threshold, or if the percent-age of failure events (defined as high packet loss, high jitter, or high round-trip time in the 10-second sample) during the 15-minute interval exceeds configurable thresholds, such as packet loss which is greater than one percent. These thresholds may be expressed in the for-mat of a Service Level Agreement (SLA) for VoIP serv-ices on the VoIP network 102. For example, if the average packet loss value for a UDP stream transmitted by the performance monitor client 108a and received by the per-formance monitor client 108b exceeds a configurable threshold, the performance monitor server 106 sends a signal to the performance monitor client 108a to trigger a traceroute that traces a route between the VoIP PoP 104a and the VoIP PoP 104b. Since UDP provides no connections but simply delivers packets, it is possible that traffic between the VoIP PoPs 104a and 104b may be sent over more than one route. Over time it is likely that the route between the VoIP PoPs 104a and 104b will vary due to changes in internet connections, modifi-cations of routers, and changes in service. However, over the short term these changes will usually not be present, and a traceroute is a useful tool to test connectivity be-tween the two VoIP PoPs 104a and 104b. At the conclu-sion of the traceroute, the performance monitor client 108a stores (216) the results of the traceroute - that is, the IP addresses of all the routers along the route be-tween the VoIP PoPs 104a and 104b - in a time stamped traceroute file and sends the traceroute file to the per-formance monitor server 106. The timestamp indicates what time the traceroute was executed.
[0030] In one implementation, the network operator monitors the performance (e.g., discard rate, error rate) of the routers in the VoIP network 102 through the use
of a router performance monitor server 114. The router performance monitor server 114 may be implemented using commercially available hardware and software. At the conclusion of a traceroute triggered by the perform-ance monitor server 106, the performperform-ance monitor server 106 may be configured to establish a link to the router performance monitor server 114 to obtain the perform-ance statistics (e.g., discard rate, error rate) associated with each traceroute hop’s router, and store the results of the query in the traceroute file.
[0031] The performance monitor server 106 repeats the polling (206) of the performance monitor client 108b at 15-minute intervals until the date associated with the "end" time of the most-recent 15-minute testing window is different from the date associated with the "start" time of the first 15-minute testing window in the 24-hour testing session. When this occurs, the performance monitor server 106 does the following:
(1) The performance monitor server 106 processes the raw data collected during the most-recent 15-minute testing window, generates a 15-15-minute sum-mary report, and triggers a traceroute or alarm, if necessary.
(2) The performance monitor server 106 processes all of the raw data collected during the 24-hour testing session to calculate the average, maximum, and minimum packet loss over the 24-hour period. Sim-ilar calculations can be made based on the jitter measurements and the round-trip delay measure-ments. Once processed, the performance monitor server 106 generates a 24-hour summary report that includes these calculations, as well as, histograms that show the distribution of the packet loss, jitter, and round-trip delay measurements per 10 seconds during that 24-hour testing session. By taking the performance measurements at different times of the day over the 24-hour period, the effect of different system loads on the measured quantity can be seen.
[0032] In one implementation, each performance mon-itor client 108 connected to the VoIP network 102 is con-figured to generate and transmit a VoIP-simulated UDP stream tagged with an IP precedence bit. Setting the IP precedence bit allows the performance monitor server 106 to check the performance of VoIP services when, for example, Quality of Service (QoS) options are configured on the VoIP network 102. In another implementation, each performance monitor client 108 is configured to generate and transmit two VoIP-simulated UDP streams simultaneously - one tagged with an IP precedence bit and one without. The generation and transmission of side-by-side streams permits the performance monitor server 106 to fully compare the relative performance of the VoIP service across different network configurations. In another implementation, each performance monitor client 108 is configured to generate and transmit multiple VoIP-simulated UDP streams, each UDP stream
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lating a different voice codec used by the VoIP service.
[0033] A web server 116 connected to the performance monitor server 106 may be configured to display the av-erage, maximum, and minimum values (called "avg/max/min") for packet loss, jitter, and round-trip delay over a 24-hour testing session on a graphical user inter-face (GUI), a sample of which is shown in FIG 3. The web server 116 may be configured to generate web-based graphical reports that indicate daily packet loss avg/max/min, daily results of the 15-minute histogram reports (e.g., reporting the percent of time in each 15-minute testing window where packet loss was less than or equal to 1%), daily jitter avg/max/min, and daily round-trip delay avg/max/min. The graphs can be generated for any pair of VoIP PoPs 104 in the VoIP network 102 using the buttons on the left side of the GUI, indicated in dashed lines 302. The buttons on the right side of the GUI, indi-cated in dashed lines 304, correspond with the 15-minute summary reports that are the basis of the graphed results. If a user wants to examine a particular 15-minute sum-mary report in detail after viewing the graphical results, the user may select a 15-minute Summary Report button by using, for example, a keyboard or a mouse. The web server 116 can display the selected 15-minute Summary Report in the same browser window, or alternatively, gen-erate a new browser window. When a user selects one of the buttons, indicated in dashed lines 306, say, for example, "Max Chicago=>Dallas", the web server 116 highlights the line in the corresponding graph for the UDP stream transmitted from Chicago to Dallas during that particular 24-hour testing session.
[0034] Other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims.
Claims
1. A method comprising:
deriving packet delivery statistics from a User Datagram Protocol stream simulating a service level provided by a VoIP network and transmit-ted across the VoIP network (102) by a first client terminal (108a) connected to the VoIP network (102) to a second client terminal (108b) connect-ed to the VoIP network (102), at a first pre-de-fined interval; and
processing the derived packet delivery statistics at a second pre-defined interval to generate net-work performance statistics for the VoIP netnet-work (102), where the second pre-defined interval is substantially larger than the first pre-defined in-terval wherein
the first client terminal (108a) is connected to a first VoIP Point of Presence on the VoIP network (102) and the second client terminal (108b) is connected to a second VoIP Point of Presence on the VoIP network (102),
the method further comprising:
triggering a traceroute that traces a route be-tween the first VoIP Point of Presence and the second VoIP Point of Presence if any one of the network performance statistics exceeds a pre-configured threshold; and
retrieving router performance statistics of each router in the route between the first VoIP Point of Presence and the second VoIP Point of Pres-ence.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein generating a User Datagram Protocol stream comprises:
selecting a service level; and
adjusting payload sizes and bit rates of the User Datagram Protocol packets according to the se-lected service level.
3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:
setting an IP precedence bit to specify a class of service for each User Datagram Protocol packet.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein deriving packet de-livery statistics comprises at least one of the follow-ing:
measuring packet loss of the User Datagram Protocol stream at each first pre-defined inter-val;
measuring jitter of the User Datagram Protocol stream at each first pre-defined interval; and measuring round-trip delay of the User Data-gram Protocol stream at each first pre-defined interval.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein generating network performance statistics comprises at least one of the following:
deriving an average packet loss value of the Us-er Datagram Protocol stream ovUs-er the second pre-defined interval;
deriving a maximum packet loss value of the Us-er Datagram Protocol stream ovUs-er the second pre-defined interval;
deriving a minimum packet loss value of the Us-er Datagram Protocol stream ovUs-er the second pre-defined interval;
deriving an average jitter value of the User Da-tagram Protocol stream over the second pre-defined interval;
deriving a maximum jitter value of the User Da-tagram Protocol stream over the second pre-defined interval;
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deriving a minimum jitter value of the User Da-tagram Protocol stream over the second pre-defined interval;
deriving an average round-trip delay value of the User Datagram Protocol stream over the second pre-defined interval;
deriving a maximum round-trip delay value of the User Datagram Protocol stream over the second pre-defined interval; and
deriving a minimum round-trip delay value of the User Datagram Protocol stream over the second pre-defined interval.
6. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a histogram that shows at least one of the following: distribution of measurements for packet loss; distribution of measurements for jitter; and distribution of measurements for delay.
7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: triggering an alarm if any one of the network per-formance statistics exceeds a pre-configured threshold.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein:
the router performance statistics are retrieved from a router performance monitor connected to the VoIP network (102); and/or
the router performance statistics comprises dis-card rates for each router; and/or
the router performance statistics comprises er-ror rates for each router.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein the service level is associated with a type of voice codec comprising at least one of the following:
a waveform codec; a source codec; and a hybrid codec.
10. A VoIP network performance testing system (100) comprising:
a VoIP network (102);
a first client terminal (108a) and a second client terminal (108b), said first and second client ter-minals connected to the VoIP network (102), each of the first and second client terminals be-ing configured to:
generate a stream of User Datagram Pro-tocol packets simulating a service level pro-vided by a VoIP network (102); and transmit the User Datagram Protocol
stream across the VoIP network (102) to a client terminal connected to the VoIP net-work (102),
derive packet delivery statistics from an in-coming said transmitted UDP stream at a first pre-defined interval; and
a monitoring device (106) connected to the VoIP network (102), the monitoring device (106) be-ing configured to:
process the derived packet delivery statistics at a second pre-defined interval; and
generate network performance statistics for the VoIP network (102), where the second pre-de-fined interval is substantially larger than the first pre-defined interval,
wherein the first client terminal (108a) is con-nected to a first VoIP Point of Presence on the VoIP network (102) and the second client termi-nal (108b) is connected to a second VoIP Point of Presence on the VoIP network (102), and the system (100) is configured to:
control the monitoring device (106) to trigger a traceroute that traces a route between the first VoIP Point of Presence and the second VoIP Point of Presence if any one of the network per-formance statistics exceeds a pre-configured threshold; and
retrieve router performance statistics of each router in the route between the first VoIP Point of Presence and the second VoIP Point of Pres-ence.
11. The system (100) of claim 10, configured to: control the monitoring device (106) to trigger an alarm if any one of the network performance sta-tistics exceeds a pre-configured threshold.
12. The system (100) of claim 11, configured to: control the first client terminal (108a) to: store results of the traceroute in a traceroute file, wherein the results comprise Internet Protocol addresses of each router in the route; and send the traceroute file to the monitoring device (106).
13. The system (100) of claim 12, further comprising: a router performance monitor (114) connected to the VoIP network (102), the router perform-ance monitor (114) being configured to poll each router in the route at pre-defined intervals to col-lect router performance statistics.
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 Patentansprüche 1. Verfahren, umfassend:
in einem ersten vordefinierten Intervall erfolgen-des Ableiten von Paketzustellungsstatistiken Benutzerdatagrammprotokoll-Strom, der ein Dienstniveau simuliert, das durch ein VoIP-Netzwerk bereitgestellt und durch ein erstes mit dem VoIP-Netzwerk (102) verbundenes Client-Endgerät (108a) zu einem zweiten mit dem VoIP-Netzwerk (102) verbundenen Client-End-gerät (108b) übertragen wird; und
in einem zweiten vordefinierten Intervall erfol-gendes Verarbeiten der abgeleiteten Paketzu-stellungsstatistiken, um Netzwerkleistungsstati-stiken für das VoIP-Netzwerk (102) zu erzeu-gen, wobei das zweite vordefinierte Intervall we-sentlich größer als das erste vordefinierte Inter-vall ist, wobei
das erste Client-Endgerät (108a) mit einem er-sten VoIP-Point of Presence im VoIP-Netzwerk (102) verbunden ist und das zweite Client-End-gerät (108b) mit einem zweiten VoIP-Point of Presence im VoIP-Netzwerk (102) verbunden ist,
wobei das Verfahren ferner umfasst:
Auslösen einer Traceroute, die eine Route zwi-schen dem ersten VoIP-Point of Presence und dem zweiten VoIP-Point of Presence verfolgt, wenn irgendeine der Netzwerkleistungsstatisti-ken einen vorkonfigurierten Schwellwert über-schreitet; und
Abrufen von Routerleistungsstatistiken jedes Routers auf der Route zwischen dem ersten Point of Presence und dem zweiten VoIP-Point of Presence.
2. Verfahren nach Anspruch 1, wobei das Erzeugen eines Benutzerdatagrammprotokoll-Stroms um-fasst:
Auswählen eines Dienstniveaus; und
Nachregeln von Nutzlastgrößen und Bitraten der Benutzerdatagrammprotokoll-Pakete ent-sprechend dem ausgewählten Dienstniveau.
3. Verfahren nach Anspruch 2, ferner umfassend: Setzen eines IP-Präzedenzbits, um eine Dienst-klasse für jedes Benutzerdatagrammprotokoll-Paket festzulegen.
4. Verfahren nach Anspruch 1, wobei das Ableiten von Paketzustellungsstatistiken mindestens eines von folgendem umfasst:
Messen des Paketverlusts des Benutzerdata-grammprotokoll-Stroms in jedem ersten vorde-finierten Intervall;
Messen des Jitters des Benutzerdatagramm-protokoll-Stroms in jedem ersten vordefinierten Intervall; und
Messen der Umlaufverzögerung des Benutzer-datagrammprotokoll-Stroms in jedem ersten vordefinierten Intervall.
5. Verfahren nach Anspruch 1, wobei das Erzeugen von Netzwerkleistungsstatistiken mindestens eines von folgendem umfasst:
Ableiten eines durchschnittlichen Paketverlust-werts des Benutzerdatagrammprotokoll-Stroms über das zweite vordefinierte Intervall;
Ableiten eines maximalen Paketverlustwerts des Benutzerdatagrammprotokoll-Stroms über das zweite vordefinierte Intervall;
Ableiten eines minimalen Paketverlustwerts des Benutzerdatagrammprotokoll-Stroms über das zweite vordefinierte Intervall;
Ableiten eines durchschnittlichen Jitterwerts des Benutzerdatagrammprotokoll-Stroms über das zweite vordefinierte Intervall;
Ableiten eines maximalen Jitterwerts des Benut-zerdatagrammprotokoll-Stroms über das zweite vordefinierte Intervall;
Ableiten eines minimalen Jitterwerts des Benut-zerdatagrammprotokoll-Stroms über das zweite vordefinierte Intervall;
Ableiten eines durchschnittlichen Umlaufverzö-gerungswerts des Benutzerdatagrammproto-koll-Stroms über das zweite vordefinierte Inter-vall;
Ableiten eines maximalen Umlaufverzöge-rungswerts des Benutzerdatagrammprotokoll-Stroms über das zweite vordefinierte Intervall; und
Ableiten eines minimalen Umlaufverzögerungs-werts des Benutzerdatagrammprotokoll-Stroms über das zweite vordefinierte Intervall.
6. Verfahren nach Anspruch 1, ferner umfassend: Er-zeugen eines Histogramms, das mindestens eines von folgendem zeigt:
Verteilung der Messungen für Paketverlust; Verteilung der Messungen für Jitter; und Verteilung der Messungen für Verzögerung.
7. Verfahren nach Anspruch 1, ferner umfassend: Auslösen eines Alarms, wenn irgendeine der Netzwerkleistungsstatistiken einen vorkonfigu-rierten Schwellwert überschreitet.
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8. Verfahren nach Anspruch 1, wobei:
die Routerleistungsstatistiken von einer Routerleistungsüberwachungseinrichtung ab-gerufen werden, die mit dem VoIP-Netzwerk (102) verbunden ist; und/oder
die Routerleistungsstatistiken Wegwerfraten für jeden Router umfassen; und/oder
die Routerleistungsstatistiken Fehlerraten für jeden Router umfassen.
9. Verfahren nach Anspruch 1, wobei das Dienstniveau einem Typ von Sprachcodec zugeordnet ist, der min-destens eines von folgendem umfasst:
ein Wellenform-Codec; ein Quellen-Codec; und ein Hybrid-Codec.
10. VoIP-Netzwerkleistungsprüfungssystem (100), um-fassend:
ein VoIP-Netzwerk (102);
ein erstes Client-Endgerät (108a) und ein zwei-tes Client-Endgerät (108b), wobei die ersten und zweiten Client-Endgeräte mit dem VoIP-Netzwerk (102) verbunden sind, wobei jedes der ersten und zweiten Client-Endgeräte konfigu-riert ist zum:
Erzeugen eines Stroms von Benutzerdata-grammprotokoll-Paketen, der ein Dienstni-veau simuliert, das durch ein VoIP-Netz-werk (102) bereitgestellt wird;
Übertragen des Benutzerdatagrammproto-koll-Stroms über das VoIP-Netzwerk (102) zu einem Client-Endgerät, das mit dem VoIP-Netzwerk (102) verbunden ist; und Ableiten von Paketzustellungsstatistiken aus einem ankommenden besagten über-tragenen UDP-Strom in einem ersten vor-definierten Intervall; und
eine Überwachungsvorrichtung (106), die mit dem VoIP-Netzwerk (102) verbunden ist, wobei die Überwachungsvorrichtung (106) konfiguriert ist zum:
Verarbeiten der abgeleiteten Paketzustellungs-statistiken in einem zweiten vordefinierten Inter-vall; und
Erzeugen von Netzwerkleistungsstatistiken für das VoIP-Netzwerk (102), wobei das zweite vor-definierte Intervall wesentlich größer als das er-ste vordefinierte Intervall ist,
wobei das erste Client-Endgerät (108a) mit ei-nem ersten Point of Presence im VoIP-Netzwerk (102) verbunden ist und das zweite Client-Endgerät (108b) mit einem zweiten
VoIP-Point of Presence im VoIP-Netzwerk (102) ver-bunden ist, und
wobei das System konfiguriert ist zum: Steuern der Überwachungsvorrichtung (106), um eine Traceroute auszulösen, die eine Route zwischen dem ersten VoIP-Point of Presence und dem zweiten VoIP-Point of Presence ver-folgt, wenn irgendeine der Netzwerkleistungs-statistiken einen vorkonfigurierten Schwellwert überschreitet; und
Abrufen von Routerleistungsstatistiken jedes Routers auf der Route zwischen dem ersten Point of Presence und dem zweiten VoIP-Point of Presence.
11. System (100) nach Anspruch 10, konfiguriert zum: Steuern der Überwachungsvorrichtung (106), um einen Alarm auszulösen, wenn irgendeine der Netzwerkleistungsstatistiken einen vorkon-figurierten Schwellwert überschreitet.
12. System (100) nach Anspruch 11, konfiguriert zum: Steuern des ersten Client-Endgeräts (108a) zum:
Speichern von Ergebnissen der Traceroute in einer Traceroute-Datei, wobei die Ergebnisse Internetprotokolladressen jedes Routers auf der Route umfassen; und
Senden der Traceroute-Datei an die Überwa-chungsvorrichtung (106).
13. System (100) nach Anspruch 12, ferner umfassend: eine Routerleistungsüberwachungseinrichtung (114), die mit dem VoIP-Netzwerk (102) verbun-den ist, wobei die Routerleistungsüberwa-chungseinrichtung (114) dafür konfiguriert ist, jeden Router auf der Route in vordefinierten In-tervallen abzufragen, um Routerleistungsstati-stiken zu sammeln.
Revendications
1. Procédé comprenant les étapes ci-dessous consis-tant à :
dériver des statistiques de remises de paquets à partir d’un flux de protocoles de service de datagramme d’utilisateur simulant un niveau de service fourni par un réseau VoIP et transmis à travers le réseau VoIP (102), par un premier ter-minal de système client (108a) connecté au ré-seau VoIP (102), à un second terminal de sys-tème client (108b) connecté au réseau VoIP (102), au cours d’un premier intervalle
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 prédéfini ; et
traiter les statistiques de remises de paquets dé-rivées au cours d’un second intervalle prédéfini, en vue de générer des statistiques de perfor-mances de réseau pour le réseau VoIP (102), où le second intervalle prédéfini est sensible-ment supérieur au premier intervalle prédéfini ; dans lequel
le premier terminal de système client (108a) est connecté à un premier point de présence VoIP sur le réseau VoIP (102) et le second terminal de système client (1 08b) est connecté à un se-cond point de présence VoIP sur le réseau VoIP (102) ;
le procédé comprenant en outre les étapes ci-dessous consistant à :
déclencher un utilitaire Traceroute qui trace un chemin entre le premier point de présence VoIP et le second point de présence VoIP si l’une quelconque des statistiques de performances de réseau dépasse un seuil préconfiguré ; et récupérer des statistiques de performances de routeur de chaque routeur sur le chemin entre le premier point de présence VoIP et le second point de présence VoIP.
2. Procédé selon la revendication 1, dans lequel l’étape consistant à générer un flux de protocoles de service de datagramme d’utilisateur comprend les étapes ci-dessous consistant à :
sélectionner un niveau de service ; et
ajuster des tailles de charge utile et des débits binaires des paquets de protocole de service de datagramme d’utilisateur selon le niveau de ser-vice sélectionné.
3. Procédé selon la revendication 2, comprenant en outre l’étape ci-dessous consistant à :
définir un bit de priorité IP en vue de spécifier une classe de service pour chaque paquet de protocole de service de datagramme d’utilisa-teur.
4. Procédé selon la revendication 1, dans lequel l’étape consistant à dériver des statistiques de remises de paquets comprend au moins l’une des étapes ci-des-sous consistant à :
mesurer une perte de paquets du flux de proto-coles de service de datagramme d’utilisateur à chaque premier intervalle prédéfini ;
mesurer une gigue du flux de protocoles de ser-vice de datagramme d’utilisateur à chaque pre-mier intervalle prédéfini ; et
mesurer un temps de propagation aller et retour du flux de protocoles de service de datagramme
d’utilisateur à chaque premier intervalle prédé-fini.
5. Procédé selon la revendication 1, dans lequel l’étape consistant à générer des statistiques de performan-ces de réseau comprend au moins l’une des étapes ci-dessous consistant à :
dériver une valeur moyenne de perte de paquets du flux de protocoles de service de datagramme d’utilisateur au cours du second intervalle prédéfini ;
dériver une valeur maximale de perte de pa-quets du flux de protocoles de service de data-gramme d’utilisateur au cours du second inter-valle prédéfini ;
dériver une valeur minimale de perte de paquets du flux de protocoles de service de datagramme d’utilisateur au cours du second intervalle prédéfini ;
dériver une valeur moyenne de gigue du flux de protocoles de service de datagramme d’utilisa-teur au cours du second intervalle prédéfini ; dériver une valeur maximale de gigue du flux de protocoles de service de datagramme d’utilisa-teur au cours du second intervalle prédéfini ; dériver une valeur minimale de gigue du flux de protocoles de service de datagramme d’utilisa-teur au cours du second intervalle prédéfini ; dériver une valeur moyenne de temps de pro-pagation aller et retour du flux de protocoles de service de datagramme d’utilisateur au cours du second intervalle prédéfini ;
dériver une valeur maximale de temps de pro-pagation aller et retour du flux de protocoles de service de datagramme d’utilisateur au cours du second intervalle prédéfini ; et
dériver une valeur minimale de temps de pro-pagation aller et retour du flux de protocoles de service de datagramme d’utilisateur au cours du second intervalle prédéfini.
6. Procédé selon la revendication 1, comprenant en outre l’étape consistant à générer un histogramme qui indique au moins l’une des distributions ci-dessous :
une distribution de mesures pour une perte de paquets ;
une distribution de mesures pour une gigue ; et une distribution de mesures pour un temps de propagation.
7. Procédé selon la revendication 1, comprenant en outre l’étape ci-dessous consistant à :
déclencher une alarme si l’une quelconque des statistiques de performances de réseau
dépas-5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 se un seuil préconfiguré.
8. Procédé selon la revendication 1, dans lequel : les statistiques de performances de routeur sont récupérées à partir d’un moniteur de performan-ces de routeur connecté au réseau VoIP (102) ; et/ou
les statistiques de performances de routeur comportent des taux de rejet pour chaque routeur ; et/ou
les statistiques de performances de routeur comportent des taux d’erreur pour chaque rou-teur.
9. Procédé selon la revendication 1, dans lequel le ni-veau de service est associé à un type de codec vocal comprenant au moins l’un des éléments ci-dessous :
un codec de forme d’onde ; un codec source ; et un codec hybride.
10. Système de test de performance de réseau VoIP (100) comprenant :
un réseau VoIP (102) ;
un premier terminal de système client (108a) et un second terminal de système client (108b), lesdits premier et second terminaux de systè-mes clients étant connectés au réseau VoIP (102), chacun des premier et second terminaux de systèmes clients étant configuré de manière à :
générer un flux de paquets de protocoles de service de datagramme d’utilisateur si-mulant un niveau de service fourni par un réseau VoIP (102) ; et
transmettre le flux de protocoles de service de datagramme d’utilisateur à travers le ré-seau VoIP (102) à un terminal de système client connecté au réseau VoIP (102) ; dériver des statistiques de remises de pa-quets à partir d’un flux de protocoles UDP entrant transmis au cours d’un premier in-tervalle prédéfini ; et
un dispositif de surveillance (106) connecté au réseau VoIP (102), le dispositif de surveillance (106) étant configuré de manière à :
traiter les statistiques de remises de paquets dé-rivées au cours d’un second intervalle prédéfini ; et
générer des statistiques de performances de ré-seau pour le réré-seau VoIP (102), où le second intervalle prédéfini est sensiblement supérieur au premier intervalle prédéfini ;
dans lequel le premier terminal de système client (108a) est connecté à un premier point de présence VoIP sur le réseau VoIP (102) et le second terminal de système client (108b) est connecté à un second point de présence VoIP sur le réseau VoIP (102) ; et
le système (100) est configuré de manière à : commander au dispositif de surveillance (106) de déclencher un utilitaire Traceroute qui trace un chemin entre le premier point de présence VoIP et le second point de présence VoIP si l’une quelconque des statistiques de performances de réseau dépasse un seuil préconfiguré ; et récupérer des statistiques de performances de routeur de chaque routeur sur le chemin entre le premier point de présence VoIP et le second point de présence VoIP.
11. Système (100) selon la revendication 10, configuré de manière à :
commander au dispositif de surveillance (106) de déclencher une alarme si l’une quelconque des statistiques de performances de réseau dé-passe un seuil préconfiguré.
12. Système (100) selon la revendication 11, configuré de manière à :
commander au premier terminal de système client (108a) de :
stocker les résultats de l’utilitaire Traceroute dans un fichier d’utilitaire Traceroute, dans le-quel les résultats comprennent des adresses IP de chaque routeur sur le chemin ; et
envoyer le fichier d’utilitaire Traceroute au dis-positif de surveillance (106).
13. Système (100) selon la revendication 12, compre-nant en outre :
un moniteur de performances de routeur (114) connecté au réseau VoIP (102), le moniteur de performances de routeur (114) étant configuré de manière à interroger chaque routeur sur le chemin à des intervalles prédéfinis en vue de recueillir des statistiques de performances de routeur.
REFERENCES CITED IN THE DESCRIPTION
This list of references cited by the applicant is for the reader’s convenience only. It does not form part of the European patent document. Even though great care has been taken in compiling the references, errors or omissions cannot be excluded and the EPO disclaims all liability in this regard.
Patent documents cited in the description
