Telecom Italia

Francesco Burgio

Luca Maria Castaldelli

Angelo Franceschini

A method for performance measurement in packet switched communication networks. The method includes generating a flow of artificial packets, which is then aggregated to the packet flow to be measured by an aggregator. The artificial packets are configured to follow the packet flow to be measured, starting from the point where aggregation is performed. Two measurement points are then provided after the aggregator, which provide respective raw performance measurements indicative of actual positions of the artificial packets in the aggregated packet flow. The raw performance measurements are then used for providing the performance measurements. Since all the raw performance measurements are generated after the aggregator, the measurement results are accurate without need to precisely insert the artificial packets at predetermined positions of the packet flow to be measured.

Performance measurement in a packet-switched communication network

A method for performance measurement in packet switched communication networks includes generating a flow of artificial packets having predefined packets lengths, which is then aggregated to the packet flow to be measured by an aggregator. The artificial packets are configured to follow the packet flow to be measured, starting from the point where aggregation is performed. Two measurement points are then provided after the aggregator, which identify the artificial packets based on their packet lengths and provide respective raw performance measurements indicative of the actual positions of the artificial packets in the aggregated packet flow. The raw performance measurements are then used for providing the performance measurements. Since the artificial packets are identified based on their packet lengths, no inspection of the packets' content is needed for identification purposes. The artificial packets may therefore be identified even if their content is uninspectable.

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Turin, Italy

Francesco Burgio