Collecting standard interval metrics using a randomized collection period

摘要

A multi-processor system comprises a plurality of data plane processors for receiving and transmitting data to a plurality of end devices and a control processor for controlling and centralizing operation of the plurality of data plane processors and for reporting usage metrics externally, wherein the control processor is coupled to communicate with the plurality of data plane processors by way of a bus. The data plane processors collect usage metrics on a scheduled basis of a randomly determined period and report the usage metrics to the control processor at the end of the randomly determined period, wherein each randomly determined period includes a first portion and a second portion. Each data plane processor is assigned a randomly determined time period that is broken into first and second portions for which it is to report usage metrics at the termination of the randomly determined period. By assigning randomly determined periods to each data plane processor and by requiring each data plane processor to report at the end of its randomly determined period, the control processor receives usage metrics reports from each of the data plane processors in a distributed manner.