Patent ID: 7944840

Claim:
A method for facilitating latency measurements on a computer data network, the method comprising: determining by an intermediate network device when there is an active real-time transport protocol (RTP) stream between a first endpoint device and a second endpoint device connected by a computer network, wherein the intermediate network device is positioned in the computer network between the first and second endpoint devices; determining by the intermediate network device whether during the active RTP stream the first endpoint device is responding to first Real-time Transport Control Protocol (RTCP) packets from the second endpoint device; determining by the intermediate network device whether during the active RTP stream the first endpoint device is providing second RTCP packets to the second endpoint device; generating and transmitting third RTCP packets by the intermediate network device to the second endpoint device if, during the active RTP stream, at least one of the following two conditions is true: i) the first endpoint device is not responding to the first RTCP packets from the second endpoint device; and ii) the first endpoint device is not providing the second RTCP packets to the second endpoint device; wherein the generated and transmitted third RTCP packets contain timing information that enables calculation of an RTP latency between the first and second endpoints.