A Passive Mode QoS Measurer for ISP

Most network QoS measurement methods are user-oriented: measurements are triggered by network users, to obtain some performance / QoS metrics of a specified network path. Obviously these methods are not suitable for Internet services providers (ISPs), for they take ISPs too much time to finish a performance poll for the whole network. ISPs need a rapid method to measure and verify some important QoS metrics of their own network and partner´s network. We introduce a real-time, passive mode measurement method based on high speed traffic monitoring and tracing mechanism. This method make it possible for ISPs to obtain QoS metrics for most network paths within a very short term at only one measuring point. The method is easy to deploy in backbone and works well in Gbps networks. We also introduce several new QoS metrics and according estimation algorithms, which may be more useful to ISPs than current end-to-end QoS metrics. The method is implemented in a tool called RPPM.