Patent ID: 9450846
Filing Date: 2016-09-20
CPC Classification: H04J,H04L

Claim Text:
1. A method for tracking packets in a network to monitor health of the network, comprising: transmitting a message from a first port of a first network element via a second network element to a second port of a third network element; recording a first timestamp of the message at the first network element relative to a first clock associated with the first network element; recording a second timestamp of the message at the second network element relative to a second clock associated with the second network element; recording a third timestamp of the message at the third network element relative to a third clock associated with the third network element, wherein the message is terminated and regenerated at the second clock and the third clock; transmitting a first follow-up message from the first port to the second port to collect and append the first timestamp, the second timestamp, and the third timestamp to the first follow-up message, wherein the appended first follow-up message includes: a header portion having an insertion code field indicative of either a hop-by-hop timestamp insertion mode or an endpoint timestamp insertion mode, and a record count field indicative of a number of timestamps included within the first follow-up message; a first timestamp record including a first port identifier associated with the first timestamp, a first format field indicative of a format associated with the first port identifier, and the first timestamp; a second timestamp record including a second port identifier associated with the second timestamp, a second format field indicative of a format associated with the second port identifier, and the second timestamp; and a third timestamp record including a third port identifier associated with the third timestamp, a third format field indicative of a format associated with the third port identifier, and the third timestamp, wherein the first follow-up message is a negotiated message; transmitting a loopback message from the second port to the first port; recording timestamps of the loopback message at each clock between the second port and the first port; and transmitting a second follow-up message from the second port to the first port to collect and append the timestamps of the loopback message at each clock.