Patent ID: 8861352

Claim:
A method, comprising: at least one data processing device accessing, from memory coupled to said at least one data processing device, instructions causing said at least one data processing device to estimate a delay for each one of a plurality of packets of a computer network traffic flow, wherein causing said at least one data processing device to estimate the delay: is performed at a fixed location between end locations of a path over which said packets traverse; is performed using packet timestamp information acquired from said packets only at the fixed location and based on a minimum delay of all of said packets received at said fixed location; and includes causing said at least one data processing device to determine a clock time offset for packets of the computer network traffic flow and determining an estimated delay time of each one of said packets wherein: the clock time offset is derived from a difference between a minimum delay time and a randomized delay time for one of said packets identified as having a minimum delay time of all of said packets; and the randomized delay time of said minimum delay packet is derived from a difference between a time at which said minimum delay packet is received by the packet monitoring apparatus and a time represented by a time stamp issued to said minimum delay packet by a timestamp clock during generation of said minimum delay packet; and said at least one data processing device accessing, from said memory, instructions causing said at least one data processing device to allocate a delay budget to each one of said packets dependent upon the estimated delay thereof.