Technique for detecting leaky points within a network protocol domain

摘要

A mechanism for allowing a prober to detect and identify leaky points within a network protocol domain utilizes a Probe Boundary Leak (PBL) protocol to propagate a probe message throughout the network protocol domain. Each PBL router that receives the probe message checks for leaky points in the network protocol domain. Any PBL router that detects a leaky point in the network protocol domain sends a negative response message to the prober including a network address for each leaky point detected by the PBL router. A PBL border router within the network protocol domain being probed sends a positive response message to the prober including a network address for each exit interface supported by the PBL border router. The prober thereby receives a list of "leaky" network interfaces and a list of "non-leaky" exit interfaces for the network protocol domain.