Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A method comprising: at a collector device configured to be in communication with a network device operating in a network: receiving analytics packets containing information describing occupancy of a buffer of the network device caused by packet flow through the buffer in the network device, each analytics packet including a record summarizing characteristics of a packet enqueued in the buffer or of a packet dequeued from the buffer; and replaying the information pertaining to the occupancy of the buffer over time based on the analytics packets, by generating data for visually presenting to a user the information pertaining to the occupancy of the buffer over time.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein replaying is based on one or more filtering criteria.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the information describes at least one of: identification of ingress port of arrival of a packet at the network device, Layer 2 source address and destination address, Layer 3 source address and destination address, Layer 4 source address and destination address, class of service, or timestamp of arrival of a packet at the ingress port.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the information describes at least one of: identification of egress port for departure of a packet from the network device, Layer 2 source address and destination address, Layer 3 source address and destination address, or timestamp of departure of a packet from the egress port.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the analytics packets include enqueue analytics packets and dequeue analytics packets, the enqueue analytics packets including information describing properties associated with a packet being enqueued to the buffer in the network device and the dequeue analytics packets including information describing properties associated with a packet being dequeued from the buffer in the network device.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the information describes buffer occupancy characteristics of the buffer including at least one of: overall buffer occupancy, buffer occupancy based on packet priority, unicast queue length or multicast queue length.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the information describes packet processing properties for packets processed by the network device including at least one of: drop, port mirrored, load balanced, bridged or routed, or packet length.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein the information describes packet processing properties for packets corresponding to user defined parameters for one or more of: rate limited, shaped, policed or any programmable bytes of the packet including payload.
9. An apparatus comprising: a memory; a processor coupled to the memory and configured to be in communication with a network device operating in a network, and configured to: receive analytics packets containing information describing occupancy of a buffer of the network device caused by packet flow through the buffer in the network device, each analytics packet including a record summarizing characteristics of a packet enqueued in the buffer or of a packet dequeued from the buffer; and replay the information pertaining to the occupancy of the buffer over time based on the analytics packets, by generating data for visually presenting to a user the information pertaining to the occupancy of the buffer over time.
10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the processor is configured to generate data to replay the information based on one or more filtering criteria.
11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the information describes at least one of: identification of ingress port of arrival of a packet at the network device, Layer 2 source address and destination address, Layer 3 source address and destination address, Layer 4 source address and destination address, class of service, or timestamp of arrival of a packet at the ingress port.
12. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the analytics packets include enqueue analytics packets and dequeue analytics packets, the enqueue analytics packets including information describing properties associated with a packet being enqueued to the buffer in the network device and the dequeue analytics packets including information describing properties associated with a packet being dequeued from the buffer in the network device.
13. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the information describes buffer occupancy characteristics of the buffer including at least one of: overall buffer occupancy, buffer occupancy based on packet priority, unicast queue length or multicast queue length.
14. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the information describes packet processing properties for packets processed by the network device including at least one of: drop, port mirrored, load balanced, bridged or routed, or packet length.
15. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the information describes packet processing properties for packets corresponding to user defined parameters for one or more of: rate limited, shaped, policed or any programmable bytes of the packet including payload.
16. A non-transitory computer readable tangible storage media encoded with instructions that, when executed by a processor of a collector device in communication with a network device operating in the network, cause the processor to: receive analytics packets containing information describing occupancy of a buffer of the network device caused by packet flow through the buffer in the network device, each analytics packet including a record summarizing characteristics of a packet enqueued in the buffer or of a packet dequeued from the buffer; and replay the information pertaining to the occupancy of the buffer over time based on the analytics packets, by generating data for visually presenting to a user the information pertaining to the occupancy of the buffer over time.
17. The non-transitory computer readable tangible storage media of claim 16, further comprising instructions to generate data to replay the information based on one or more filtering criteria.
18. The non-transitory computer readable tangible storage media of claim 16, wherein the information describes at least one of: identification of ingress port of arrival of a packet at the network device, Layer 2 source address and destination address, Layer 3 source address and destination address, Layer 4 source address and destination address, class of service, or timestamp of arrival of a packet at the ingress port.
19. The non-transitory computer readable tangible storage media of claim 16, wherein the analytics packets include enqueue analytics packets and dequeue analytics packets, the enqueue analytics packets including information describing properties associated with a packet being enqueued to the buffer in the network device and the dequeue analytics packets including information describing properties associated with a packet being dequeued from the buffer in the network device.
20. The non-transitory computer readable tangible storage media of claim 16, wherein the information describing buffer occupancy characteristics of the buffer including at least one of: overall buffer occupancy, buffer occupancy based on packet priority, unicast queue length or multicast queue length.
21. A method comprising: receiving packets at a network device; capturing information describing an occupancy of a buffer caused by packet flow through the buffer in the network device; selecting one or more packets by applying a filter to the packets in the buffer to provide selected packets; generating an analytics packet including packet characteristics of one or more of the selected packets that flowed through the buffer, wherein the packet characteristics include one or more of: an identification of ingress port of arrival of the packet at the network device, a Layer 2 address, a Layer 3 address, a Layer 4 address, a class of service, or a timestamp corresponding to a packet arrival time at the ingress port; sending the analytics packet to a collector device for analysis of the analytics packet.
22. The method of claim 21, further comprising: receiving the analytics packet at the collector device; and performing the analysis of the analytics packet at the collector device.
23. The method of claim 22, wherein the receiving and the performing are performed by a CPU and a memory in the network device.
24. The method of claim 22, wherein the receiving the analytics packet comprises receiving the analytics packet at the collector device that is connected to the network device via a network.
25. The method of claim 21, wherein sending the analytics packet to the collector device includes sending the analytics packet from an egress port on the network device.
26. The method of claim 21, wherein the sending the analytics packet comprises sending the analytics packet on a programmable time schedule.
27. A method comprising: receiving packets at an ingress port on a network device; placing the packets in a buffer prior to the packets being sent out an egress port of the network device; selecting one or more packets by applying a filter to the packets in the buffer to provide selected packets; generating analytics information describing an occupancy of the buffer, the analytics information including packet characteristics relating to one or more of the selected packets; and sending the analytics information to a collector device for analysis.
28. The method of claim 27, wherein the filter relates to the occupancy of the buffer.
29. The method of claim 27, wherein the packet characteristics include one or more of: an identification of ingress port of arrival of a packet at the network device, a Layer 2 address, a Layer 3 address, a Layer 4 address, a class of service, or a timestamp corresponding to a packet arrival time at the ingress port.
30. The method of claim 27, further comprising: receiving the analytics information at the collector device; and performing the analysis of the analytics information at the collector device.
31. The method of claim 30, wherein the receiving and the performing are performed by a CPU and a memory in the network device.
32. The method of claim 30, wherein the receiving the analytics information comprises receiving the analytics information at the collector device that is connected to the network device via a network.
33. The method of claim 27, wherein sending the analytics information to the collector device includes generating an analytics packet and sending the analytics packet from an egress port on the network device.
34. The method of claim 27, wherein the sending includes sending the analytics information on a programmable time schedule.
35. The method of claim 27, wherein the analytics information includes queue length information.
36. The method of claim 27, wherein the packet characteristics include an indication whether a packet was dropped due to the occupancy of the buffer.
37. A network device comprising: a plurality of ingress ports and a plurality of egress ports; a buffer to temporarily store one or more incoming packets received by the network device through one of the ingress ports; and an analytics logic configured to select one or more packets by applying a filter to the packets in the buffer to provide one or more selected packets, generate analytics information describing an occupancy of the buffer, and send the analytics information to a collector device for analysis, wherein the analytics information includes packet characteristics relating to one or more of the selected packets.
38. The network device of claim 27, wherein the analytics information includes queue length information.
39. The network device of claim 37, wherein the packet characteristics include an indication whether a packet was dropped due to the occupancy of the buffer.
40. The network device of claim 37, wherein the packet characteristics include one or more of: an identification of ingress port of arrival of a packet at the network device, a Layer 2 address, a Layer 3 address, a Layer 4 address, a class of service, or a timestamp corresponding to a packet arrival time at the ingress port.
41. The network device of claim 37, wherein the collector device comprises a CPU and a memory in the network device.
42. The network device of claim 37, wherein the collector device is connected to the network device via a network.
43. The network device of claim 37, further comprising an analytics packet assembler configured to generate an analytics packet including the analytics information and send the analytics packet from one of the egress ports.
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February 11, 2025
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