Method and apparatus for improved traffic monitoring in wireless communication systems

Various methods and devices are provided to address the need for improved backhaul monitoring capabilities. In a first method, a network node determines whether an operational setting indicates that a traffic monitoring mode is enabled. When the traffic monitoring mode is enabled, the network node sends GTP-U packets, each GTP-U packet including a GTP-U header with an S bit set to 1 and a corresponding sequence number in a sequence number field. In a second method, a network node receives such GTP-U packets and utilizes the corresponding sequence numbers of the received GTP-U packets to provide performance measurement counts of missed GTP-U packets.