Patent ID: 7523355

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: one or more processors; a memory coupled to the processors comprising instructions executable by the processors, the processors operable when executing the instructions to: monitor for outages occurring locally at a network device that forwards communications sent from one or more remote endpoints located in a first network through the network device, to a second different network; monitor for outages occurring remotely on first network links located in the first network; identify outage information according to the local and remote monitoring; send the outage information from the network device, over the second network to a remote system that is located outside the first network and that monitors for outages located on second network links that are located outside the first network; generate time stamp values according to a configured period; store the periodically generated time stamp values in a local storage; when recovering from a local crash, compare a most recently stored time stamp value to a local current system time to determine an outage measurement for the local crash; and include the outage measurement within the outage information.