Patent ID: 8045478

Claim:
A measurement method for use in a data packet transmission network, wherein a stream of packets of data sent by a first terminal passes in transit through at least one network equipment with which there is associated a stream measurement unit; wherein said first terminal and said measurement unit are connected to a collection unit; said method comprising the following steps: the first terminal sending a specific stream of packets, each having a different determined size, the sizes being such that in a set of r packets, r being a positive integer less than or equal to the number of packets of the stream, there are not any two subsets of said set of r packets comprising the same number of packets and having the same cumulative total size; the measurement unit analyzing at least one packet and at most r packets of said stream passing in transit through the network equipment; the first terminal sending the collection unit a sent packet stream description, comprising a list including at least said determined sizes of the sent packets; the stream measurement unit sending the collection unit a stream description comprising at least the number of analyzed packets and a sum of determined sizes of the analyzed packets; and the collection unit identifying each analyzed packet of the stream as a function of the stream description and of said determined sizes of the sent packets in order to correlate said stream description and said sent packet stream description packet by packet.