Patent ID: 8024478
Filing Date: 2011-09-20
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method for identifying a network path between a source node and a destination node, the network path including one or more proxies, the method comprising: generating a proxy trace message at the source node, said proxy trace message comprising a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) packet; transmitting said proxy trace message over the network path towards the destination node, said proxy trace message following a path taken by application messages transmitted by the source node and comprising an echo option to instruct said one or more proxies in the path to insert an IP address of the proxy in the proxy trace message, said one or more proxies configured to respond to said echo option; and receiving said proxy trace message at the source node, the received proxy trace message comprising addresses of the destination node and said one or more proxies and a counter identifying the number of proxies in the path; wherein said proxy trace message is intercepted by one or more intermediate nodes on the network path and redirected to said one or more proxies, each of said one or more proxies configured to establish a TCP connection with another of said one or more proxies or the destination node, and wherein said one or more proxies comprise one or more server or client proxies and said one or more intermediate nodes comprise routers or switches.