Patent ID: 7773543

Claim:
A method for determining the length of node-to-node links in a digital network, comprising: measuring a forwarding time by a device for each node-to-node link; eliminating queuing time from each forwarding time measurement; determining and subtracting a store-forward time from each forwarding time measurement by: transmitting a first data packet having a first size over a link to a target node; measuring the forwarding time for the link; repeating the transmitting and measuring steps for a plurality of data packets having the first size; repeating the transmitting, measuring and repeating steps for a plurality of other data packets having a like plurality of other sizes; for each packet size, identifying the forwarding time with the lowest value as representing a forwarding time measurement for the link without a queuing time contribution; plotting a linear regression on a data set comprising the forwarding time as a function of packet size; and identifying the store-forward time as the slope of the plotted linear regression; determining and subtracting an execution time from each forwarding time measurement to obtain a propagation time for a signal being transmitted on each node-to-node link; based upon the propagation time for each node-to-node link, calculating a length of each node-to-node link; and outputting the calculated lengths to a user.