Gateway routers for real-time networks have the ability to collect delay,
loss, and jitter statistics on a per-connection basis. It is possible to
use this information not only to monitor the quality of individual voice
calls and other real-time connections, but also to evaluate the overall
performance of the underlying network. This paper describes a method for
monitoring and managing the performance of a real-time data network that
supports voice, video and other real-time services. In the described
embodiments, the RTCP mechanisms of RTP for sender and receiver reporting
be used to relay performance information to one or more network
monitoring sites for analysis and interpretation. In addition, gateway
routers are organized and managed within a hierarchy that allows the
monitoring function to localize it view of network conditions within the
hierarchy; and the monitoring of network performance can occur on various
time scales.