Patent ID: 8339986

Claim:
A method of testing a network for delivering multimedia data comprising: providing a multimedia source divided into data packets according to a packetizing standard, each data packet including a header and a payload containing a portion of the multimedia data; forming packet bundles by grouping N data packets together into each packet bundle, where N>O; inserting instrumentation in the header of at least one data packet within each packet bundle to create an instrumented packet, the instrumentation including information for determining at least one performance characteristic of the network, wherein the instrumentation includes an expected transmission interval that represents the expected amount of time between transmission of a current packet bundle and transmission of a next packet bundle and wherein the expected transmission interval comprises a computed value that is based on an amount of time required to play media carried by a packet bundle; transmitting the packet bundles across the network; and receiving one of the packet bundles, extracting the expected transmission interval from the instrumented packet within the bundle, and using the expected transmission interval to calculate the at least a delay factor of the network.