Patent ID: 8102770

Claim:
A network element for monitoring and optimizing performance on a packet network with vector performance tables comprising: an input/output (I/O) unit configured to communicate data packets with at least one other network element on said packet network, said data packets including network performance information and communicated in-band along the data path of the packet network; a processing unit configured to receive said data packets from said at least one other network element; a data storage unit in communication with said processing unit and configured to store vector performance tables including a compilation of said network performance information contained in said data packets, said processor configured to process said data packets to store said network performance information in said vector performance table; and main memory in communication with said processing unit and said data storage unit; wherein memory registers on the main memory are utilized as bins for storing recent network performance information, and in response to receiving a polling request for network performance information, the processing unit retrieving the recent network performance information data from the bins in the memory registers to increase response time of the network element to the polling request for network performance information, and wherein the processing unit is further configured to transfer an oldest of the recent network performance information from the bins in main memory to the data storage unit as needed to add newly received network performance information to the bins in main memory for enabling the increase in response time of the network element to the polling request for network performance information.