Internet Traffic Outage Detection via Path Trace Analysis
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Solution Overview
Problem
Troubleshooting performance issues in cloud-based and web-based services is challenging due to difficulties in determining whether problems originate from the cloud service provider, the customer's internal IT network, or intermediate network providers, making it hard to detect and pinpoint networking-related performance issues and their root causes.
Innovation Solution
A system and process for traffic outage detection that collects network traffic data from agents performing active network tests, filters the data, and generates visualizations and alerts to identify network traffic outage events, using path trace data to determine terminal events and merge outage events based on Autonomous System Numbers, geographic locations, and other filters to isolate root causes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If cloud-based services are used to deliver distributed applications, then service accessibility and scalability are improved, but troubleshooting difficulty and time to identify root causes increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the network path into multiple measurable components (customer network, service provider network, intermediate networks) and uses path trace data to identify which segment contains the outage. This segmentation allows isolated troubleshooting of specific network segments rather than treating the entire cloud service delivery chain as a single black box.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces path trace data as an intermediary mechanism that mediates between the service delivery system and the troubleshooting process. This intermediary provides observable evidence about network conditions at different segments, enabling indirect detection of outages without requiring direct access to all network infrastructure.
2Reliability
If comprehensive network monitoring is implemented to detect outages, then outage detection capability is improved, but system complexity and data processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary actions by collecting path trace data from multiple sources and pre-processing it to identify terminal events before actual outages occur. This preliminary data collection and analysis infrastructure is established in advance, enabling rapid outage detection when events occur without requiring complex real-time processing during the outage itself.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges data from multiple path trace sources and combines multiple filtering criteria (terminal events, ASN-based grouping, geographic location) into a unified analysis framework. This merging consolidates complex data processing into an integrated system that leverages the complementary strengths of different data sources and filtering approaches.
3Measurement precision
If path trace data from multiple sources is collected and analyzed, then outage detection accuracy is improved, but data processing time and computational resources increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by using geographic location and ASN information to focus analysis on specific local network segments where outages are detected. Rather than uniformly processing all path trace data from all sources, the system concentrates computational resources on geographically and autonomously system-specific segments that show signs of outages, improving efficiency while maintaining accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses partial action by applying selective filtering based on terminal events and ASN grouping only to the extent necessary for accurate outage detection. The system processes data comprehensively enough to identify outages with high accuracy but stops short of exhaustive analysis of all possible data attributes, achieving sufficient precision without excessive processing overhead.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques for performing traffic outage detection in the Internet are disclosed. In some embodiments, a system, process, and/or computer program product for traffic outage detection in the Internet includes deploying a plurality of agents and a plurality of tests to be executed by the deployed agents; collecting path trace data from the plurality of agents to identify one or more terminal events; and detecting a network outage based on the one or more terminal events.