Application Synchronization Signals for Encrypted Network QoS Estimation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for monitoring network performance, such as bandwidth usage and latency, do not accurately reflect the quality of service experienced by individual customers or specific applications, especially when network traffic is encrypted, leading to potential poor quality of service that is not quickly detected.
Innovation Solution
Estimating network performance based on application synchronization signals, which are short, fast data flows exchanged between application servers and user endpoint devices, allows for measuring network performance metrics like latency, plotting their distribution, and classifying network performance from a customer or application perspective using defined thresholds.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If traditional network monitoring methods are used to measure network metrics, then network performance can be monitored in general, but the quality of service experienced by individual customers or specific applications cannot be accurately reflected
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary measurement approach by using application synchronization signals as a mediator between the network infrastructure and the actual service quality experienced by customers. These synchronization signals serve as proxy measurements that reflect the true quality of service without requiring direct access to encrypted application traffic, thereby achieving accurate customer-specific performance measurement while maintaining monitoring system simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent enables the network monitoring system to self-adjust by automatically calibrating measurements against application synchronization signals. The system uses these signals to establish baseline performance metrics and automatically detects deviations from expected quality of service, eliminating the need for complex manual configuration and continuous manual intervention while maintaining high measurement precision.
2Loss of information
If deep packet inspection is used to monitor encrypted traffic, then greater insight from customer perspective can be obtained, but it becomes ineffective when network traffic is encrypted
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the essential measurement information from application synchronization signals without requiring access to the encrypted payload. By focusing on the synchronization protocol layer rather than the application data layer, the system obtains quality of service information while remaining effective regardless of whether the application traffic is encrypted or not, thus resolving the adaptability issue.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of trying to inspect encrypted traffic directly (the traditional approach), the patent inverts the methodology by monitoring the synchronization signals that precede and accompany the encrypted traffic. This inverse approach allows the system to derive quality of service information indirectly through the synchronization layer, which remains unencrypted and accessible, thereby maintaining information accessibility across all traffic types.
3Reliability
If network performance is monitored from network perspective using general metrics, then overall network status can be assessed, but poor quality of service affecting individual customers is not quickly detected
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the network monitoring function by creating customer-specific and application-specific measurement streams using application synchronization signals. Instead of a single aggregate network view, the system divides measurements into individual customer experiences, enabling reliable quality of service assessment for each customer while detecting issues quickly at the individual level before they affect the broader network.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements preliminary monitoring by continuously tracking application synchronization signals as they occur, establishing a baseline of expected quality of service for each customer and application. This preliminary action enables the system to detect deviations from normal performance in real-time, quickly identifying poor quality of service conditions before they escalate into widespread network issues.
Data Source
AI summary
A method performed by a processing system including at least one processor includes monitoring, over a defined period of time, a plurality of application synchronization signals exchanged between an application server and a user endpoint device in a communications network, measuring, for each application synchronization signal of the plurality of application synchronization signals, a value of a network performance metric, to produce a plurality of network performance metric values, plotting a distribution of the plurality of network performance metric values, calculating a percentage of the plurality of network performance metric values for which the value of the network performance metric fails to meet a threshold that is defined relative to the distribution, and classifying a performance of the communications network from a perspective of the user endpoint device, based on the percentage.