Patent ID: 11902133
Assignee: JUNIPER NETWORKS, INC.
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 0:
1. A method, comprising:
initiating, by a network device, a connection with one or more neighboring network devices,
wherein the network device and the one or more neighboring network devices are included in a group of network devices that are part of a network and are configured with a protocol for measuring network performance,
wherein the protocol is a two-way active measurement protocol (TWAMP),
wherein the network device is a first endpoint in the network,
wherein initiating the connection causes the network device and the one or more neighboring network devices to exchange a relay mechanism that is used for measuring the network performance, and
wherein the protocol includes the relay mechanism and the relay mechanism causes the group of network devices to perform, during a test session, one or more test session tasks based on a set of rules associated with the relay mechanism;

causing, by the network device, the test session to be established and to be used for measuring the network performance;
causing, by the network device, the one or more neighboring devices to use the relay mechanism to determine a first group of round trip time (RTT) values along one or more first paths between the one or more neighboring network devices and a particular network device, of the group of network devices,
wherein the particular network device is a second endpoint in the network;

receiving, by the network device and from the one or more neighboring network devices, information that includes the first group of RTT values,
wherein the information that includes the first group of RTT values is received based on the one or more neighboring network devices performing the one or more test session tasks during the test session;

determining, by the network device, a second group of RTT values along one or more second paths between the network device and the one or more neighboring network devices;
determining, by the network device, overall RTT values based on the first group of RTT values and the second group of RTT values; and
identifying, by the network device, a preferred next-hop to one of the one or more neighboring network devices based on the overall RTT values,
wherein the preferred next-hop is part of a preferred path to the particular network device.