Patent ID: 7397801

Claim:
A method of determining whether a network path is quality of service (QoS) enabled comprising: on a sink side, when receiving traffic from an unknown source sending noise to the source using a socket comprising: sending n large packets back to back where n is at least 1; and on a source side sending test probes to the sink comprising: sending a large high priority probe packet with an oversized flag; waiting for notification that the large high priority packet has entered the network; sending y normal priority packets where y is greater than or equal to 1; waiting for notification that these normal priority packets have entered the network; sending at least one high priority probe packet; waiting for notification that the high priority packet has entered the network; reviewing the packets sent and received and if no large packet was received after a plurality of sends, determining that the network fabric does not support QoS; reviewing the packets sent and received and if all packets were received in the order sent, determining that the path tolerates QoS enabled traffic; and reviewing the packets sent and received and if all the sent packets were received and a later sent higher priority packet was received prior to a lower priority earlier sent packet, determining that QoS is supported.