Abstract: The present invention is directed to simultaneously monitoring the performance of differing communication paths between selected sites for detecting performance problems over one of the monitored paths, and moving packet traffic to one or more other better performing paths.

Abstract: A monitoring system gathers both site-to-site measurements, and agent-to-agent measurements, wherein one or more agents are distributed in one or more sites in a distributed network environment. Site-to-site measurements between two sites, such as site one and site two, are obtained by testing between any agent at site one and any agent at site two. A measurement rate between sites and between agents is determined that allows for the detection of events, such as user perceivable events, without overwhelming the set of agents that form the distributed measurement system. With, for example, a scheduling mechanism used to schedule measurement tests of finite duration, as opposed to continuous streams of measurement packets, for each pair of agents, the test can be used as an indication as to whether the measurement system is overwhelmed.

Abstract: Methods and apparatuses for obtaining delay, jitter, and loss statistics of a path between server and an end user coupled via an internetwork are described. The server may comprise a web server in communication with the end user via the Internet. Statistics are obtained by analyzing the details of a TCP connection underlying an HTML transaction. Robust measurements of jitter, delay, and loss are ensured by maximizing traffic between the web server and the surfer in order to generate a robust sample of TCP connections. Content may be updated with one or more html link(s). This existing content may reside on a highly trafficked portal, such as a web portal, and may be encoded in a markup language, such as Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML). The Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) corresponding to the one or more links resolve to the server from which the statistics are to be measured. The actual content supplied by the server may be minimized, in order to preserve bandwidth.

Abstract: Methods and apparatuses for obtaining delay, jitter, and loss statistics of a path between server and an end user coupled via an internetwork are described. The server may comprise a web server in communication with the end user via the Internet. Statistics are obtained by analyzing the details of a TCP connection underlying an HTML transaction. Robust measurements of jitter, delay, and loss are ensured by maximizing traffic between the web server and the surfer in order to generate a robust sample of TCP connections. Content may be updated with one or more html link(s). This existing content may reside on a highly trafficked portal, such as a web portal, and may be encoded in a markup language, such as Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML). The Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) corresponding to the one or more links resolve to the server from which the statistics are to be measured. The actual content supplied by the server may be minimized, in order to preserve bandwidth.