Network Working Group V. Raisanen
Request for Comments: 3432 Nokia
Category: Standards Track G. Grotefeld
Motorola
A. Morton
AT&T Labs
November 2002
Network performance measurement with periodic streams
Status of this Memo
This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2002). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
This memo describes a periodic sampling method and relevant metrics
for assessing the performance of IP networks. First, the memo
motivates periodic sampling and addresses the question of its value
as an alternative to the Poisson sampling described in RFC 2330. The
benefits include applicability to active and passive measurements,
simulation of constant bit rate (CBR) traffic (typical of multimedia
communication, or nearly CBR, as found with voice activity
detection), and several instances in which analysis can be
simplified. The sampling method avoids predictability by mandating
random start times and finite length tests. Following descriptions
of the sampling method and sample metric parameters, measurement
methods and errors are discussed. Finally, we give additional
information on periodic measurements, including security
considerations.
Raisanen, et al. Standards Track [Page 1]
RFC 3432 Network performance measurement November 2002
Table of Contents
1. Conventions used in this document........................... 2
2. Introduction................................................ 3
2.1 Motivation.............................................. 3
3. Periodic Sampling Methodology............................... 4
4. Sample metrics for periodic streams......................... 5
4.1 Metric name............................................. 5
4.2 Metric parameters....................................... 5
4.3 High level description of the procedure to collect a
sample.................................................. 7
4.4 Discussion.............................................. 8
4.5 Additional Methodology Aspects.......................... 9
4.6 Errors and uncertainties................................ 9
4.7 Reporting............................................... 13
5. Additional discussion on periodic sampling.................. 14
5.1 Measurement applications................................ 15
5.2 Statistics calculable from one sample................... 18
5.3 Statistics calculable from multiple samples............. 18
5.4 Background conditions................................... 19
5.5 Considerations related to delay......................... 19
6. Security Considerations..................................... 19
6.1 Denial of Service Attacks............................... 19
6.2 User data confidentiality............................... 20
6.3 Interference with the metric............................ 20
7. IANA Considerations......................................... 20
8. Normative References........................................ 20
9. Informative References...................................... 21
10. Acknowledgments............................................. 21
11. Author's Addresses.......................................... 22
12. Full Copyright Statement.................................... 23
1. Conventions used in this document
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14, RFC 2119 [2].
Although RFC 2119 was written with protocols in mind, the key words
are used in this document for similar reasons. They are used to
ensure that the results of measurements from two different
implementations are comparable, and to note instances in which an
implementation could perturb the network.
datatracker.ietf.org