A device and method provides a means for monitoring a media segment of a Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) media stream without interfering with end-to-end monitoring of the RTP media stream. The device includes a media segment monitor to generate segment control messages associated with a selected segment of the RTP media stream transmitted between a source endpoint and a destination endpoint in a packet network. The device further includes an interface to transmit and receive the segment control messages; and a processor to process the segment control messages, the segment control messages including call quality metrics related to the selected segment of the RTP media stream.
