Patent Document ID: 8942114
Application ID: 13165352
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for monitoring traffic in a network comprising a plurality of links, wherein each of the plurality of links comprises a plurality of neighboring pairs of slots, the method comprising: receiving network traffic at a traffic monitoring module of a network node; using the traffic monitoring module, identifying a usage status for a first slot and a second slot, the first and second slots being a neighboring pair of slots, the neighboring pair of slots being one of the plurality of neighboring pairs of slots; calculating a utilization entropy value for the first and second slots, the utilization entropy value based at least on a difference between the usage status for the first slot and the usage status for the second slot; performing the above steps for each of the neighboring pairs of the plurality of neighboring pairs of slots to create a set of utilization entropy values; and calculating a link utilization entropy value, the link utilization entropy value based at least on a statistical analysis of the set of utilization entropy values.