Efficient Continuous Latency Monitoring with eBPF

Abstract Network latency is a critical factor for the perceived quality of experience many applications. With an increasing focus on interactive and real-time applications, which require reliable low latency, ability to continuously efficiently monitor becoming more important than ever. Always-on passive monitoring can provide continuous metrics without injecting any traffic into network. However, software-based tools often struggle keep up with as packet rates increase, especially contemporary multi-Gbps interfaces. We investigate feasibility using eBPF enable efficient network by implementing evolved Passive Ping (ePPing). Our evaluation shows that ePPing delivers accurate RTT measurements handle over 1 Mpps, or correspondingly 10 Gbps, single core, greatly improving state-of-the-art software based solutions, such PPing.