Network Performance Monitoring via BGP Community
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current network monitoring techniques require significant administrative resources for manual configuration and do not efficiently collect comprehensive performance information across network devices, making it difficult for ISPs to identify and address service level agreement (SLA) compliance issues.
Innovation Solution
Network devices dynamically form a performance community using routing protocols like BGP, OSPF, or ISIS to exchange identification information and collect performance data through probes, allowing for self-configuration and aggregation of performance statistics without manual intervention.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Extent of automation
If manual configuration is used to establish performance monitoring communities, then network monitoring can be implemented, but administrative resources and time consumption increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
Network devices automatically discover and register themselves in the performance monitoring community by exchanging routing protocol messages. The system performs self-configuration without requiring manual administrator intervention to establish monitoring communities or configure monitoring parameters on individual devices.
Solution Approach 2:
The system pre-configures performance monitoring capabilities within network devices before they need to be deployed. Devices are pre-programmed with the ability to automatically discover their network topology and establish monitoring relationships through routing protocol exchanges, eliminating the need for post-deployment manual configuration.
2Loss of information
If comprehensive performance information is collected from all network devices, then network monitoring completeness improves, but system complexity and resource requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple network devices are merged into a single performance monitoring community that operates as a coordinated system. Devices share performance information through standardized routing protocol messages, allowing comprehensive network monitoring to be achieved through collective operation rather than individual complex monitoring systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The performance monitoring system uses existing universal routing protocols (OSPF, IS-IS, BGP) to perform monitoring functions. This allows the system to leverage the multi-functionality and widespread deployment of routing protocols to achieve comprehensive performance information collection without requiring dedicated complex monitoring infrastructure.
3Ease of operation
If network devices dynamically form performance communities using routing protocols, then administrative burden is reduced, but protocol complexity and message processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system reuses existing routing protocol message formats and processing mechanisms to carry performance monitoring information. By making routing protocols multi-functional (both routing and performance monitoring), the system avoids the need for separate dedicated monitoring protocols, thereby reducing operational complexity despite the added monitoring capability.
Solution Approach 2:
Performance monitoring functions are merged with existing routing protocol operations. Network devices combine the performance monitoring task with their routine routing protocol message exchange, allowing monitoring to be achieved through the same message processing infrastructure that already exists for routing, thereby minimizing additional complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques are described for monitoring performance of a network. Particularly, network devices within the network exchange routing communications in accordance with one or more routing protocols, such as the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), to automatically establish a community for monitoring performance throughout the network. Upon establishing the community, the network devices of the community exchange performance probes to collect comprehensive performance information for the network. This performance information may be aggregated via one or more computing devices. Using the aggregated performance information, numerous network performance characteristics may be computed, including delay, jitter, throughput, availability and packet loss.