Patent ID: 8526315

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: an interface for coupling to an Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) network; one or more processors at a sender node operable to establish, over the interface, a Session Description Protocol (SDP) media session with one or more receiver nodes via a media transmission path of the IPv6 network operating in accordance with a media transport protocol, the media transmission path comprising one or more intermediate media nodes between the sender node and the one or more receiver nodes, the one or more processors being further operable to specify one or more attributes in a media description section of the SDP media session, the one or more attributes including: a first attribute to communicate a label that identifies a media flow to the one or more receiver nodes as well as to the one or more intermediate media nodes residing on the media transmission path; and a second attribute that allows the sender node or the one or more intermediate media nodes to establish a flow state for generating media flow information, the media flow information comprising media statistics/measurements generated either on a per network core basis or on a per media session basis; and wherein the one or more attributes are added by the one or more processors in the media description section of the SDP media session to communicate the label from the sender node to the one or more intermediate media nodes and the one or more receiver nodes in the media transmission path, the one or more intermediate media nodes being operable to add or remove the one or more attributes specified in the media description section, whereby, one or more further intermediate media nodes are further operable to generate the media flow information based on attributes added by the one or more intermediate media nodes and stop generating the media flow information based on attributes removed by the one or more intermediate media nodes.