Telecom Italia S.p.a.

Luca Maria Castaldelli

Mauro Cociglio

Giuseppe Fioccola

Angelo Franceschini

Francesco Burgio

Luca Fantolino

Davide Missan

Domenico Laforgia

Domenico Arena

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

It is disclosed a method for performing a performance measurement on a packet flow transmitted through a packet-switched communication network. In the packet flow, first blocks of packets having a first packet feature and second blocks of packets having a second packet feature are provided by periodically switching a packet feature in the packet flow, so that the first blocks of packets alternate in time with the second blocks of packets. Two or more measurement points on the path of the packet flow provide performance parameters relating to the first and second blocks of packets, and alternately provide their values to a network controller, which the controller uses to perform the performance measurement. The periodic switching of the packet feature and the alternate provision of the performance parameter values are in response to remote commands received from the controller.

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.

A system and method for managing a network apparatus of a communication network. The system includes a network management center including a management-on-board manager MoB-M and a management-on-board agent MoB-A executed at the network apparatus. During its execution, the agent MoB-A performs at least part of a management task on the network apparatus. Besides, during its execution the agent MoB-A retrieves at least one instruction from the manager MoB-M, and executes it for completing the management task. This way, the manager MoB-M may dynamically adapt the behavior of the agent MoB-A to unforeseen events or changes occurring in the network, without the need to rewrite the whole agent logic.

System and method for network apparatus management

An apparatus is provided for measuring the performance of a mobile communication system. The apparatus includes two measurement mobile interfaces and a measurement probe. The probe is connected to the backhauling interface of a base station of the system. Then, one measurement mobile interface transmits packets to the other measurement mobile interface via the base station. These packets are received at the base station, forwarded to the packet gateway of the system, sent back to the same base station, and finally received at the destination measurement mobile interface. Since the measurement probe belongs to the same apparatus as the mobile interfaces, it may detect the packets as transmitted/received at the backhauling interface. The probe then generates performance parameters relating to the packets as transmitted/received by the mobile interfaces and/or as detected at the backhauling interface. The system performance is then measured based on such parameters.

Performance monitoring of a mobile communication system

Disclosed is a method for performing a measurement (namely, a data loss measurement and/or a time measurement) on a data flow to be transmitted in a communication network. The method includes: upon transmission of the data flow, during first block periods that alternate in time with second block periods, marking each data unit of the data flow by setting a feature thereof to a first value and updating a first parameter; upon reception of the data flow, checking the feature for each received data unit and updating a second parameter when the feature is equal to the first value; while transmission and reception are performed, processing a timer for determining whether a current block period is one of the second block periods and, in the affirmative, providing current values of the first and second parameters; and performing a measurement using the current values of the first and second parameters.

Measurement on a data flow in a communication network

A method for measuring data loss of a data flow in a communication network is provided. The method includes, at a transmitting node: marking each data unit of the data flow for dividing the data flow in blocks so that: data units of a same block have a feature with a same value, while data units of contiguous blocks have the feature with different values; increasing a first counter when the feature has the first value, and a second counter when the feature has the second value; and transmitting the data flow to a receiving node. The method includes, at the receiving node, for each data unit: checking the feature, increasing a third counter when the feature has the first value, and increasing a second counter when the feature has the second value. The method includes calculating data loss based on detected values of first, second, third and fourth counters.

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Turin, Italy

Luca Maria Castaldelli