Patent ID: 7701864

Claim:
A method for quantifying the performance of a component configured to function as a node in a communications network, the method comprising: sending an information unit (A) with a certain payload (P) by at least one computing unit through the component; and calculating a service time delay (S) for the information unit (A) by the at least one computing unit, wherein the service time delay (S) for the information unit (A) with the certain payload (P) is known as the time difference between a time of departure (t d ) of said information unit (A) and a time of arrival (t a ) of said information unit (A), where a first service time (S 1 ) is known for a first information unit (A 1 ) with a first payload (P 1 ), a second service time (S 2 ) is known for a second information unit (A 2 ) with a second payload (P 2 ), and so on to a last information unit (A n ) with a last payload (P n ) in a stream of payloads, and where an incremental step (IS) of payload between said first, second and following information units (A 1 , A 2 , . . ., A n ) is predefined, wherein said component is represented by a virtual distance (x) according to the following formula: x=v 1 ·S 1 =v 2 ·S 2 =. . .=v i ·S i =v i+1 ·S i+1 =. . .=v n ·S n wherein the virtual distance x is a constant distance for a given component, that v i corresponds to a virtual speed with which an information unit (Ai) with a specific payload P i travels; wherein S i corresponds to the time taken to travel said distance x with the speed v i , S i being the service time for an information unit A i with payload P i ; wherein the speed v i is represented by: v i = [ S i + 1 S i - 1 ] · IS - 1 wherein the constant distance x thus is represented by: x = S i + 1 - S i IS , and ⁢ , wherein the virtual distance x is a representation of a metric that relates to intrinsic properties of said component, allowing said quantification of said component.