Method and apparatus for active probing of tunneled internet protocol (IP) transmission paths

摘要

A method, apparatus, and system in an IP-based mobile communication network for actively probing a tunneled transmission path from a base station such as an eNB to a core network. A UE-emulator emulates a User Equipment (UE) and provides emulated NAS signaling to a Probe Connection Control (PCC) unit in the base station, which establishes the tunneled transmission path by forwarding the NAS signaling received from the emulator toward the core network. The PCC stores associated communication endpoints and UE-assigned IP addresses. A Probe Traffic Control (PTC) unit within the base station utilizes the stored endpoints and IP addresses to generate probe traffic through the tunneled transmission path toward a probe server or another base station configured as a probe reflector. The probe reflector collects and reports path properties such as packet loss, delay, jitter, and throughput.