Exporting real time network traffic latency and buffer occupancy

Abstract

Techniques are presented herein to facilitate the monitoring of occupancy of a buffer in a network device. Packets are received at a network device. Information is captured describing occupancy of the buffer caused by packet flow through the buffer in the network device. Analytics packets are generated containing the information. The analytics packets from the network device for retrieval of the information contained therein for analysis, replay of buffer occupancy, etc.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A method comprising:
 at a collector device configured to be in communication with a network device operating in a network:
 receiving analytics packets containing information describing occupancy of a buffer of the network device caused by packet flow through the buffer in the network device, each analytics packet including a record summarizing characteristics of a packet enqueued in the buffer or of a packet dequeued from the buffer; and 
 replaying the information pertaining to the occupancy of the buffer over time based on the analytics packets, by generating data for visually presenting to a user the information pertaining to the occupancy of the buffer over time. 
 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , wherein replaying is based on one or more filtering criteria. 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the information describes at least one of: identification of ingress port of arrival of a packet at the network device, Layer 2 source address and destination address, Layer 3 source address and destination address, Layer 4 source address and destination address, class of service, or timestamp of arrival of a packet at the ingress port. 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the information describes at least one of: identification of egress port for departure of a packet from the network device, Layer 2 source address and destination address, Layer 3 source address and destination address, or timestamp of departure of a packet from the egress port. 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the analytics packets include enqueue analytics packets and dequeue analytics packets, the enqueue analytics packets including information describing properties associated with a packet being enqueued to the buffer in the network device and the dequeue analytics packets including information describing properties associated with a packet being dequeued from the buffer in the network device. 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the information describes buffer occupancy characteristics of the buffer including at least one of: overall buffer occupancy, buffer occupancy based on packet priority, unicast queue length or multicast queue length. 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the information describes packet processing properties for packets processed by the network device including at least one of: drop, port mirrored, load balanced, bridged or routed, or packet length. 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the information describes packet processing properties for packets corresponding to user defined parameters for one or more of: rate limited, shaped, policed or any programmable bytes of the packet including payload. 
     
     
       9. An apparatus comprising:
 a memory; 
 a processor coupled to the memory and configured to be in communication with a network device operating in a network, and configured to:
 receive analytics packets containing information describing occupancy of a buffer of the network device caused by packet flow through the buffer in the network device, each analytics packet including a record summarizing characteristics of a packet enqueued in the buffer or of a packet dequeued from the buffer; and 
 replay the information pertaining to the occupancy of the buffer over time based on the analytics packets, by generating data for visually presenting to a user the information pertaining to the occupancy of the buffer over time. 
 
 
     
     
       10. The apparatus of  claim 9 , wherein the processor is configured to generate data to replay the information based on one or more filtering criteria. 
     
     
       11. The apparatus of  claim 9 , wherein the information describes at least one of: identification of ingress port of arrival of a packet at the network device, Layer 2 source address and destination address, Layer 3 source address and destination address, Layer 4 source address and destination address, class of service, or timestamp of arrival of a packet at the ingress port. 
     
     
       12. The apparatus of  claim 9 , wherein the analytics packets include enqueue analytics packets and dequeue analytics packets, the enqueue analytics packets including information describing properties associated with a packet being enqueued to the buffer in the network device and the dequeue analytics packets including information describing properties associated with a packet being dequeued from the buffer in the network device. 
     
     
       13. The apparatus of  claim 9 , wherein the information describes buffer occupancy characteristics of the buffer including at least one of: overall buffer occupancy, buffer occupancy based on packet priority, unicast queue length or multicast queue length. 
     
     
       14. The apparatus of  claim 9 , wherein the information describes packet processing properties for packets processed by the network device including at least one of: drop, port mirrored, load balanced, bridged or routed, or packet length. 
     
     
       15. The apparatus of  claim 9 , wherein the information describes packet processing properties for packets corresponding to user defined parameters for one or more of: rate limited, shaped, policed or any programmable bytes of the packet including payload. 
     
     
       16. A non-transitory computer readable tangible storage media encoded with instructions that, when executed by a processor of a collector device in communication with a network device operating in the network, cause the processor to:
 receive analytics packets containing information describing occupancy of a buffer of the network device caused by packet flow through the buffer in the network device, each analytics packet including a record summarizing characteristics of a packet enqueued in the buffer or of a packet dequeued from the buffer; and 
 replay the information pertaining to the occupancy of the buffer over time based on the analytics packets, by generating data for visually presenting to a user the information pertaining to the occupancy of the buffer over time. 
 
     
     
       17. The non-transitory computer readable tangible storage media of  claim 16 , further comprising instructions to generate data to replay the information based on one or more filtering criteria. 
     
     
       18. The non-transitory computer readable tangible storage media of  claim 16 , wherein the information describes at least one of: identification of ingress port of arrival of a packet at the network device, Layer 2 source address and destination address, Layer 3 source address and destination address, Layer 4 source address and destination address, class of service, or timestamp of arrival of a packet at the ingress port. 
     
     
       19. The non-transitory computer readable tangible storage media of  claim 16 , wherein the analytics packets include enqueue analytics packets and dequeue analytics packets, the enqueue analytics packets including information describing properties associated with a packet being enqueued to the buffer in the network device and the dequeue analytics packets including information describing properties associated with a packet being dequeued from the buffer in the network device. 
     
     
       20. The non-transitory computer readable tangible storage media of  claim 16 , wherein the information describing buffer occupancy characteristics of the buffer including at least one of: overall buffer occupancy, buffer occupancy based on packet priority, unicast queue length or multicast queue length. 
     
     
       21. A network device, comprising:
 a plurality of ingress ports and a plurality of egress ports;   a buffer to temporarily store one or more packets received by the network device through one of the ingress ports; and   analytics logic comprising digital logic gates and/or software that provide information associated with a first packet from the one or more packets, wherein the information comprises an indication of an ingress port of arrival of the one or more packets, a timestamp representing a time of capturing the one or more packets at the ingress port, a device identifier, and a packet error properties field;   wherein the analytics logic generates a second packet including the information and sends the first packet to one of the plurality of egress ports.    
     
     
       22. The network device of claim 21, wherein the second packet is transmitted on an egress port different from the first packet.  
     
     
       23. The network device of claim 21, wherein the analytics logic further performs admission control or departure control.  
     
     
       24. The network device of claim 23, wherein the departure control includes one of dropping, scheduling rate limiting, policing, or shaping with respect to one or more packets sent out an egress port.  
     
     
       25. The network device of claim 23, wherein the admission control includes one of dropping, scheduling, rate limiting, policing, or shaping with respect to packets arriving at an ingress port.  
     
     
       26. The network device of claim 22, further comprising a collector device, wherein latency analysis is performed by the collector device on a packet flow associated with the first packet through analysis of the second packet.  
     
     
       27. A method for analyzing packets, comprising:
 receiving a plurality of packets from a plurality of ingress ports;   temporarily storing one or more received packets in a buffer of a network device;   analyzing a first packet from the one or more received packets to generate an indication of an ingress port of the first packet, a timestamp representing a time of reception of the first packet at the ingress port, a device identifier associated with the first packet, and a packet error properties field;   generating a second packet including information from the first packet as well as the indication of the ingress port, the timestamp, the device identifier, and the packet error properties field; and   sending the first packet out a first egress port.    
     
     
       28. The method of claim 27, wherein the method further comprises sending the second packet out a second egress port, different than the first egress port.  
     
     
       29. The method of claim 27, further comprising performing admission control or departure control.  
     
     
       30. The method of claim 29, wherein the departure control includes one of dropping, scheduling, rate limiting, policing, or shaping with respect to one or more packets sent out an egress port.  
     
     
       31. The method of claim 29, wherein the admission control includes one of dropping, scheduling, rate limiting, policing, or shaping with respect to packets arriving at an ingress port.  
     
     
       32. The method of claim 27, wherein the second packet contains information included in the first packet.  
     
     
       33. The method of claim 27, wherein the second packet includes one or more user-defined fields.  
     
     
       34. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions that, when executed, cause a logic circuit to:
 receive a plurality of packets from a plurality of ingress ports;   temporarily store one or more received packets in a buffer of a network device;   analyze a first packet from the one or more received packets to generate an indication of an ingress port of the first packet, a timestamp representing a time of reception of the first packet at the ingress port, a device identifier associated with the first packet, and a packet error properties field;   generate a second packet including information from the first packet as well as the indication of the ingress port, the timestamp, the device identifier, and the packet error properties field; and   send the first packet out a first egress port.    
     
     
       35. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 34, wherein the instructions further cause the logic circuit to send the second packet out a second egress port, different than the first egress port.  
     
     
       36. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 34, wherein the instructions further cause the logic circuit to generate the packet error properties field and include it in the second packet.  
     
     
       37. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 34, wherein the instructions further cause the logic circuit to generate information identifying a particular network device and include it in the second packet as the device identifier.  
     
     
       38. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 34, wherein the instructions further cause the logic circuit to perform admission control including one of dropping, scheduling, rate limiting, policing, or shaping with respect to packets arriving at an ingress port.  
     
     
       39. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 34, wherein the instructions further cause the logic circuit to perform departure control including one of dropping, scheduling, rate limiting, policing, or shaping with respect to one or more packets sent out an egress port.