Patent attributes
The following description is directed to monitoring a multi-tier network including a first tier of routers and a second tier of routers. In one embodiment, a method of monitoring the network comprises creating a probe packet. The probe packet can include a source address corresponding to a monitoring function, and a destination address served by a path from the first tier to the second tier of routers. The probe packet can be transmitted into the multi-tier network. A number of probe packets counted by each router of the first and second tiers of routers can be received. One or more performance metrics of the multi-tier network can be determined based, at least in part, on a sum of the number of probe packets counted by the first tier of routers and a sum of the number of probe packets counted by the second tier of routers.
