VoIP quality measurement enhancements using the internet control message protocol

摘要

This invention relates to a method for enhancing the quality information of a VoIP session by deducting information from received ICMP messages, in addition to quality information already collected from media streams and/or signaling streams of the same VoIP session. ICMP messages passing on the network link are monitored and correlated with an existing and ongoing VoIP session, i.e. media stream, already monitored by a media plane monitoring unit. A data record for the media stream(s) is expanded with information from the ICMP messages, thus giving a better and more complete quality feedback of the media stream reception at the two communication endpoints.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
by a monitoring probe of a passive non-intrusive monitoring system, monitoring data packets of a mirrored media stream transmitted from a first communication device to a second communication device in a packet-switched communications network, by the monitoring probe, determining media-related quality information for the mirrored media stream, based on the received data packets related to the mirrored media stream, by the monitoring probe, monitoring at least one Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) message transmitted from a network device in the packet-switched communications network, wherein the at least one ICMP message relates to the mirrored media stream and includes information on a transmission error of the data packets of the mirrored media stream to the second communication device, by the monitoring probe, determining ICMP-related quality information for the mirrored media stream, based on the received at least one ICMP message, related to the mirrored media stream, by the monitoring probe, monitoring a plurality of ICMP messages related to the mirrored media stream, including said at least one ICMP message, and by a pattern matching entity, deducing an error scenario based on the plurality of ICMP messages related to the mirrored media stream and based on different error scenario patterns stored in a pattern database of the monitoring probe, wherein determining the ICMP-related quality information includes adding information on the deduced error scenario to the ICMP-related quality information.