Patent ID: 7742413

Claim:
A method for tracking communication network traffic within a communication network comprising a first network run by a first service provider and a second network run by a second service provider, the method comprising the steps of: receiving session traffic having an origin and a destination; multicasting the session traffic to the destination and to a null jitter buffer; receiving the session traffic in the null jitter buffer; buffering the session traffic in the null jitter buffer; analyzing performance metrics of the session traffic in the null jitter buffer to evaluate flow characteristics; determining that a size of a jitter buffer in the communication network should be adjusted based on the flow characteristics of the session traffic received in the null jitter buffer; determining, based on the flow characteristics, whether dropped packets are dropped from the first network run by the first service provider or the second network run by the second service provider and determining the physical location of a network problem that is causing the dropped packets; and adjusting the size of the jitter buffer based on the flow characteristics.