Network Working Group V. Manral
Request for Comments: 4061 SiNett Corp.
Category: Informational R. White
Cisco Systems
A. Shaikh
AT&T Labs (Research)
April 2005
Benchmarking Basic OSPF Single Router Control Plane Convergence
Status of This Memo
This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does
not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this
memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005).
Abstract
This document provides suggestions for measuring OSPF single router
control plane convergence. Its initial emphasis is on the control
plane of a single OSPF router. We do not address forwarding plane
performance.
NOTE: In this document, the word "convergence" relates to single
router control plane convergence only.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction....................................................2
2. Specification of Requirements...................................2
3. Overview and Scope..............................................3
4. Reference Topologies............................................4
5. Basic Performance Tests.........................................5
5.1. Time Required to Process an LSA...........................5
5.2. Flooding Time.............................................6
5.3. Shortest Path First Computation Time......................6
6. Basic Intra-area OSPF Tests.....................................8
6.1. Forming Adjacencies on Point-to-Point Links
(Initialization)..........................................9
6.2. Forming Adjacencies on Point-to-Point Links...............9
6.3. Forming Adjacencies with Information Already in the
Database.................................................10
6.4. Designated Router Election Time on a Broadcast Network...11
Manral, et al. Informational [Page 1]
RFC 4061 Basic OSPF Benchmarking April 2005
6.5. Initial Convergence Time on a Broadcast Network,
Test 1...................................................11
6.6. Initial Convergence Time on a Broadcast Network,
Test 2...................................................12
6.7. Link Down with Layer Two Detection.......................12
6.8. Link Down with Layer Three Detection.....................13
7. Security Considerations........................................13
8. Acknowledgements...............................................13
9. Normative References...........................................14
10. Informative References.........................................14
Authors' Addresses.................................................15
Full Copyright Statement...........................................16
1. Introduction
There is a growing interest in routing protocol convergence testing,
with many people looking at various tests to determine how long it
takes for a network to converge after various conditions occur. The
major problem with this sort of testing is that the framework of the
tests has a major impact on the results; for instance, determining
when a network is converged, what parts of the router's operation are
considered within the testing, and other such things will have a
major impact on the apparent performance that routing protocols
provide.
This document attempts to provide a framework for Open Shortest Path
First [OSPF] performance testing, and to provide some tests for
measuring some aspects of OSPF performance. The motivation of the
document is to provide a set of tests that can provide the user
comparable data from various vendors with which to evaluate the OSPF
protocol performance on the devices.
2. Specification of Requirements
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 [RFC2119]. RFC 2119
key words in this document are used to ensure methodological control,
which is very important in the specification of benchmarks. This
document does not specify a network-related protocol.
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