Patent ID: 7957295

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a probe generator to generate a first Ethernet connectivity check request frame that comprises a first transmission timestamp embedded in a Type, Length, Value (TLV), wherein the first Ethernet connectivity check request frame is a loopback request frame; a query module that queries an information base to identify a destination router for the first Ethernet connectivity check request frame, wherein the information base is stored in a memory; wherein the information base is indexed by a unique key for each of a plurality of endpoints, the unique key is formed by using the source Media Access Code (MAC) address and a probe id; a sender module coupled to the probe generator to transmit the first Ethernet connectivity check request frame from a source router to the destination router; a receiver module to receive a reply from the destination router that is transmitted in response to receiving the first Ethernet connectivity check request frame; and a performance monitoring module coupled to the receiver module to determine a round trip time between the source router and the destination router based on a time of receipt of the reply and the first transmission timestamp.