Patent ID: 7099283

Claim:
A method of estimating QoS in an IP network, comprising: generating at least one QoS estimate by generating at least a first and second probing packet with an access router from at least one access point; sending said first and second probing packets from said at least one access point over a fixed core network having a plurality of routers to a correspondent access router and then back to said at least one access router; sending at least one collector packet to follow said first and second probing packets to gather at least one predetermined QoS parameter from said routers after said first and second probing packets leave said routers, the first and second probing packets being used to generate the at least one QoS parameter gathered by the at least one collector packet while the first and second probing packets from and back to the access router; and processing said at least one QoS parameter with said at least one access router to determine a level of QoS experienced by said at least one access router; and making a handoff trigger decision based on the at least one QoS estimate.