Abstract: The disclosure relates to a method of monitoring a communications network comprising a plurality of node equipment 2, e.g. switches, and link equipment, e.g. fibre optic links, in which performance parameters of individual components of the node equipment are used to determine an overall performance parameter for the node equipment. By comparing like performance parameters for individual network elements, the performance of different types of network element can be compared with each other. Parameters which can be monitored include quality of service, cell discard, cell loss, and other measures of network performance. Connection tracing through the plurality of node equipment and link equipment is also achieved.