Patent ID: 8018917

Claim:
A system comprising: a first module comprising a first processor, the first module being configured to perform operations comprising: receiving a transmission of data comprising packets from a first portion of a network; determining information related to a quantity of packet loss in the transmission of data occurring in the first portion of the network; modifying the data by selectively inserting substitute packets in the data in place of packets that were lost in the transmission of data in the first portion of the network, wherein the substitute packets exhibit time stamps similar to time stamps associated with the packets that were lost in the transmission; providing a transmission of modified data to a second portion of the network, the modified data including at least one substitute packet; determining a first parameter indicative of network performance associated with the first portion of the network, wherein the first parameter is determined based on the transmission of data received from the first portion of the network; and providing the first parameter to a second module in the system; and the second module comprising a second processor, the second module being configured to perform operations comprising: receiving the first parameter from the first module; receiving a second parameter from the second portion of the network, wherein the second parameter is indicative of network performance associated with the second portion of the network and determined at least based on the transmission of the modified data received in the second portion of the network from the first module; and determining a quality score that is indicative of a link quality that is based on at least the first parameter and the second parameter.