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Rate Measurement Test Protocol Problem Statement
draft-ietf-ippm-rate-problem-06

The information below is for an old version of the document.
Document Type
This is an older version of an Internet-Draft that was ultimately published as RFC 7497.
Author Al Morton
Last updated 2014-08-07
Replaces draft-morton-ippm-rate-problem
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draft-ietf-ippm-rate-problem-06
Network Working Group                                          A. Morton
Internet-Draft                                                 AT&T Labs
Intended status: Informational                            August 6, 2014
Expires: February 7, 2015

            Rate Measurement Test Protocol Problem Statement
                    draft-ietf-ippm-rate-problem-06

Abstract

   This memo presents an access rate-measurement problem statement for
   test protocols to measure IP Performance Metrics.  The rate
   measurement scenario has wide-spread attention of Internet access
   subscribers and seemingly all industry players, including regulators.
   Key test protocol aspects require the ability to control packet size
   on the tested path and enable asymmetrical packet size testing in a
   controller-responder architecture.

Requirements Language

   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 RFC 2119 [RFC2119].

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on February 7, 2015.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2014 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

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   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Purpose and Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Active Rate Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   4.  Measurement Method Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   5.  Test Protocol Control & Generation Requirements . . . . . . .   9
   6.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   7.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   8.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   9.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     9.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     9.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12

1.  Introduction

   There are many possible rate measurement scenarios.  This memo
   describes one rate measurement problem and presents a rate-
   measurement problem statement for test protocols to measure IP
   Performance Metrics (IPPM).

   When selecting a form of access to the Internet, subscribers are
   interested in the performance characteristics of the various
   alternatives.  Standardized measurements can be a basis for
   comparison between these alternatives.  There is an underlying need
   to coordinate measurements that support such comparisons, and test
   control protocols to fulfill this need.  The figure below depicts
   some typical measurement points of access networks.

   User    ====== Fiber =======  Access Node \
   Device  ----- Copper -------  Access Node -|--- Infrastructure --- GW
   or Host ------ Radio -------  Access Node /

   The access-rate scenario or use case has received wide-spread
   attention of Internet access subscribers and seemingly all Internet
   industry players, including regulators.  This problem is being
   approached with many different measurement methods.

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2.  Purpose and Scope

   The scope and purpose of this memo is to define the measurement
   problem statement for test protocols conducting access rate
   measurement on production networks.  Relevant test protocols include
   [RFC4656] and [RFC5357], but the problem is stated in a general way
   so that it can be addressed by any existing test protocol, such as
   [RFC6812].

   This memo discusses possibilities for methods of measurement, but
   does not specify exact methods which would normally be part of the
   solution, not the problem.

   We are interested in access measurement scenarios with the following
   characteristics:

   o  The Access portion of the network is the focus of this problem
      statement.  The user typically subscribes to a service with bi-
      directional access partly described by rates in bits per second.
      The rates may be expressed as raw capacity or restricted capacity
      as described in [RFC6703].  These are the quantities that must be
      measured according to one or more standard metrics, and for which
      measurement methods must also be agreed as a part of the solution.

   o  Referring to the reference path illustrated below and defined in
      [I-D.ietf-ippm-lmap-path], possible measurement points include a
      Subscriber's host, the access service demarcation point, Intra IP
      access where a globally routable address is present, or the
      gateway between the measured access network and other networks.

   Subsc. -- Private -- Private -- Access -- Intra IP -- GRA -- Transit
   device     Net #1     Net #2    Demarc.    Access     GW     GRA GW

               GRA = Globally Routable Address, GW = Gateway

   o  Rates at some links near the edge of the provider's network can
      often be several orders of magnitude less than link rates in the
      aggregation and core portions of the network.

   o  Asymmetrical access rates on ingress and egress are prevalent.

   o  In many scenarios of interest, extremely large scale of access
      services requires low complexity devices participating at the user
      end of the path.

   This problem statement assumes that the most-likely bottleneck device
   or link is adjacent to the remote (user-end) measurement device, or

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   is within one or two router/switch hops of the remote measurement
   device.

   Other use cases for rate measurement involve situations where the
   packet switching and transport facilities are leased by one operator
   from another and the link capacity available cannot be directly
   determined (e.g., from device interface utilization).  These
   scenarios could include mobile backhaul, Ethernet Service access
   networks, and/or extensions of layer 2 or layer 3 networks.  The
   results of rate measurements in such cases could be employed to
   select alternate routing, investigate whether capacity meets some
   previous agreement, and/or adapt the rate of traffic sources if a
   capacity bottleneck is found via the rate measurement.  In the case
   of aggregated leased networks, available capacity may also be
   asymmetric.  In these cases, the tester is assumed to have a sender
   and receiver location under their control.  We refer to this scenario
   below as the aggregated leased network case.

   Support of active measurement methods will be addressed here,
   consistent with the IPPM working group's traditional charter.  Active
   measurements require synthetic traffic dedicated to testing, and do
   not make measurements on user traffic.

   As noted in [RFC2330] the focus of access traffic management may
   influence the rate measurement results for some forms of access, as
   it may differ between user and test traffic if the test traffic has
   different characteristics, primarily in terms of the packets
   themselves (see section 13 of [RFC2330] for the considerations on
   packet type, or Type-P).

   There are several aspects of Type-P where user traffic may be
   examined and selected for special treatment that may affect
   transmission rates.  Without being exhaustive, the possibilities
   include:

   o  Packet length

   o  IP addresses

   o  Transport protocol (e.g. where TCP packets may be routed
      differently from UDP)

   o  Transport Protocol port numbers

   This issue requires further discussion when specific solutions/
   methods of measurement are proposed, but for this problem statement
   it is sufficient to identify the problem and indicate that the

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   solution may require an extremely close emulation of user traffic, in
   terms of one or more factors above.

   Although the user may have multiple instances of network access
   available to them, the primary problem scope is to measure one form
   of access at a time.  It is plausible that a solution for the single
   access problem will be applicable to simultaneous measurement of
   multiple access instances, but treatment of this scenario is beyond
   the current scope this document.

   A key consideration is whether active measurements will be conducted
   with user traffic present (In-Service testing), or not present (Out-
   of-Service testing), such as during pre-service testing or
   maintenance that interrupts service temporarily.  Out-of-Service
   testing includes activities described as "service commissioning",
   "service activation", and "planned maintenance".  Opportunistic In-
   Service testing when there is no user traffic present (e.g., outside
   normal business hours) throughout the test interval is essentially
   equivalent to Out-of-Service testing.  Both In-Service and Out-of-
   Service testing are within the scope of this problem.

   It is a non-goal to solve the measurement protocol specification
   problem in this memo.

   It is a non-goal to standardize methods of measurement in this memo.
   However, the problem statement will mandate support for one or more
   categories of rate measurement methods in the test protocol and
   adequate control features for the methods in the control protocol
   (assuming the control and test protocols are separate).

3.  Active Rate Measurement

   This section lists features of active measurement methods needed to
   measure access rates in production networks.

   Coordination between source and destination devices through control
   messages and other basic capabilities described in the methods of
   IPPM RFCs [RFC2679][RFC2680], and assumed for test protocols such as
   [RFC5357] and [RFC4656], are taken as given.

   Most forms of active testing intrude on user performance to some
   degree, especially In-Service testing.  One key tenet of IPPM methods
   is to minimize test traffic effects on user traffic in the production
   network.  Section 5 of [RFC2680] lists the problems with high
   measurement traffic rates, and the most relevant for rate measurement
   is the tendency for measurement traffic to skew the results, followed
   by the possibility of introducing congestion on the access link.  In-
   Service testing MUST respect these traffic constraints.  Obviously,

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   categories of rate measurement methods that use less active test
   traffic than others with similar accuracy are preferred for In-
   Service testing.

   On the other hand, Out-of-Service tests where the test path shares no
   links with In-Service user traffic have none of the congestion or
   skew concerns, but these tests must address other practical matters
   such as conducting measurements within a reasonable time from the
   tester's point of view.  Out-of-Service tests where some part of the
   test path is shared with In-Service traffic MUST respect the In-
   Service constraints.

   The **intended metrics to be measured** have strong influence over
   the categories of measurement methods required.  For example, using
   the terminology of [RFC5136], a it may be possible to measure a Path
   Capacity Metric while In-Service if the level of background (user)
   traffic can be assessed and included in the reported result.

   The measurement *architecture* MAY be either of one-way (e.g.,
   [RFC4656]) or two-way (e.g., [RFC5357]), but the scale and complexity
   aspects of end-user or aggregated access measurement clearly favor
   two-way (with low-complexity user-end device and round-trip results
   collection, as found in [RFC5357]).  However, the asymmetric rates of
   many access services mean that the measurement system MUST be able to
   evaluate performance in each direction of transmission.  In the two-
   way architecture, it is expected that both end devices MUST include
   the ability to launch test streams and collect the results of
   measurements in both (one-way) directions of transmission (this
   requirement is consistent with previous protocol specifications, and
   it is not a unique problem for rate measurements).

   The following paragraphs describe features for the roles of test
   packet SENDER, RECEIVER, and results REPORTER.

   SENDER:

   Generate streams of test packets with various characteristics as
   desired (see Section 4).  The SENDER MAY be located at the user end
   of the access path or elsewhere in the production network, such as at
   one end of an aggregated leased network segment.

   RECEIVER:

   Collect streams of test packets with various characteristics (as
   described above), and make the measurements necessary to support rate
   measurement at the receiving end of an access or aggregated leased
   network segment.

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   REPORTER:

   Use information from test packets and local processes to measure
   delivered packet rates, and prepare results in the required format
   (the REPORTER role may be combined with another role, most likely the
   SENDER).

4.  Measurement Method Categories

   A protocol that addresses the rate measurement problem MUST serve the
   test stream generation and measurement functions (SENDER and
   RECEIVER).  The follow-up phase of analyzing the measurement results
   to produce a report is outside the scope of this problem and memo
   (REPORTER).

   For the purposes of this problem statement, we categorize the many
   possibilities for rate measurement stream generation as follows;

   1.  Packet pairs, with fixed intra-pair packet spacing and fixed or
       random time intervals between pairs in a test stream.

   2.  Multiple streams of packet pairs, with a range of intra-pair
       spacing and inter-pair intervals.

   3.  One or more packet ensembles in a test stream, using a fixed
       ensemble size in packets and one or more fixed intra-ensemble
       packet spacings (including zero spacing, meaning that back-to-
       back burst ensembles and constant rate ensembles fall in this
       category).

   4.  One or more packet chirps, where intra-packet spacing typically
       decreases between adjacent packets in the same chirp and each
       pair of packets represents a rate for testing purposes.

   The test protocol SHALL support test packet ensemble generation
   (category 3), as this appears to minimize the demands on measurement
   accuracy.  Other stream generation categories are OPTIONAL.

   For all categories, the test protocol MUST support:

   a.  Variable payload lengths among packet streams

   b.  Variable length (in packets) among packet streams or ensembles

   c.  Variable IP header markings among packet streams

   d.  Choice of UDP transport and variable port numbers, OR, choice of
       TCP transport and variable port numbers for two-way architectures

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       only, OR BOTH.  See below for additional requirements on TCP
       transport generation.

   e.  Variable number of packets-pairs, ensembles, or streams used in a
       test session.

   The items above are additional variables that the test protocol MUST
   be able to identify and control.  The ability to revise these
   variables during an established test session is OPTIONAL, as multiple
   test sessions could serve the same purpose.  Another OPTIONAL feature
   is the ability to generate streams with VLAN tags and other markings.

   For measurement systems employing TCP as the transport protocol, the
   ability to generate specific stream characteristics requires a sender
   with the ability to establish and prime the connection such that the
   desired stream characteristics are allowed.  See Mathis' work in
   progress for more background [I-D.ietf-ippm-model-based-metrics].

   Beyond simple connection handshake and options establishment, an
   "open-loop" TCP sender requires the SENDER ability to:

   o  generate TCP packets with well-formed headers (all fields valid),
      including Acknowledgement aspects.

   o  produce packet streams at controlled rates and variable inter-
      packet spacings, including packet ensembles (back-to-back at
      server rate).

   o  continue the configured sending stream characteristics despite all
      control indications except receive window exhaust.

   The corresponding TCP RECEIVER performs normally, having some ability
   to configure the receive window sufficiently large so as to allow the
   SENDER to transmit at will (up to a configured target).

   It may also be useful to provide a control for Bulk Transfer Capacity
   measurement with fully-specified (and congestion-controlled) TCP
   senders and receivers, as envisioned in [RFC3148], but this would be
   a brute-force assessment which does not follow the conservative
   tenets of IPPM measurement [RFC2330].

   Measurements for each UDP test packet transferred between SENDER and
   RECEIVER MUST be compliant with the singleton measurement methods
   described in IPPM RFCs [RFC2679][RFC2680] (these could be listed
   later, if desired).  The time-stamp information or loss/arrival
   status for each packet MUST be available for communication to the
   protocol entity that collects results.

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5.  Test Protocol Control & Generation Requirements

   Essentially, the test protocol MUST support the measurement features
   described in the sections above.  This requires:

   1.  Communicating all test variables to the SENDER and RECEIVER

   2.  Results collection in a one-way architecture

   3.  Remote device control for both one-way and two-way architectures

   4.  Asymmetric packet size and/or pseudo-one-way test capability in a
       two-way measurement architecture (along with symmetric packet
       size tests in common use)

   The ability to control and generate asymmetric rates in a two-way
   architecture is REQUIRED.  The ability to control and generate
   symmetric and asymmetric packet sizes in a two-way architecture are
   both RECOMMENDED.

   The asymmetric packet size control and generation capability is
   necessary when:

   o  there is a link in the path with asymmetrical capacity in opposite
      directions (in combination with one or more of the conditions
      below, but their presence or specific details may be unknown to
      the tester),

   o  there is a link in the path which aggregates (or divides) packets
      into link-level frames, and may have a capacity that depends on
      packet size, rate, or timing,

   o  there is a link in the path where transmission in one direction
      influences performance on the opposite direction,

   o  there is a device in the path where transmission capacity depends
      on packet header processing capacity (in other words, the capacity
      is sensitive to packet size),

   o  the target application stream is nominally MTU size packets in one
      direction vs. ACK stream in the other, (noting that there are a
      vanishing number of symmetrical-rate application streams for which
      rate measurement is wanted or interesting),

   o  the distribution of packet losses is critical to rate assessment,

   and possibly other circumstances revealed by measurements comparing
   streams with symmetrical size and asymmetrical size.

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   Implementations MAY support control and generation for only symmetric
   packet sizes when none of the above conditions hold.

   The test protocol SHOULD enable measurement of the [RFC5136] Capacity
   metric, either Out-of-Service, In-Service, or both.  Other [RFC5136]
   metrics are OPTIONAL.

6.  Security Considerations

   The security considerations that apply to any active measurement of
   live networks are relevant here as well.  See [RFC4656] and
   [RFC5357].

   There may be a serious issue if a proprietary Service Level Agreement
   involved with the access network segment provider were somehow leaked
   in the process of rate measurement.  To address this, test protocols
   SHOULD NOT convey this information in a way that could be discovered
   by unauthorized parties.

7.  IANA Considerations

   This memo makes no requests of IANA.

8.  Acknowledgements

   Dave McDysan provided comments and text for the aggregated leased use
   case.  Yaakov Stein suggested many considerations to address,
   including the In-Service vs. Out-of-Service distinction and its
   implication on test traffic limits and protocols.  Bill Cerveny,
   Marcelo Bagnulo, and Kostas Pentikousis (a persistent reviewer) have
   contributed insightful, clarifying comments that made this a better
   draft.  Barry Constantine also provided suggestions for
   clarification.

9.  References

9.1.  Normative References

   [RFC1305]  Mills, D., "Network Time Protocol (Version 3)
              Specification, Implementation", RFC 1305, March 1992.

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [RFC2330]  Paxson, V., Almes, G., Mahdavi, J., and M. Mathis,
              "Framework for IP Performance Metrics", RFC 2330, May
              1998.

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   [RFC2679]  Almes, G., Kalidindi, S., and M. Zekauskas, "A One-way
              Delay Metric for IPPM", RFC 2679, September 1999.

   [RFC2680]  Almes, G., Kalidindi, S., and M. Zekauskas, "A One-way
              Packet Loss Metric for IPPM", RFC 2680, September 1999.

   [RFC4656]  Shalunov, S., Teitelbaum, B., Karp, A., Boote, J., and M.
              Zekauskas, "A One-way Active Measurement Protocol
              (OWAMP)", RFC 4656, September 2006.

   [RFC5357]  Hedayat, K., Krzanowski, R., Morton, A., Yum, K., and J.
              Babiarz, "A Two-Way Active Measurement Protocol (TWAMP)",
              RFC 5357, October 2008.

   [RFC5618]  Morton, A. and K. Hedayat, "Mixed Security Mode for the
              Two-Way Active Measurement Protocol (TWAMP)", RFC 5618,
              August 2009.

   [RFC5938]  Morton, A. and M. Chiba, "Individual Session Control
              Feature for the Two-Way Active Measurement Protocol
              (TWAMP)", RFC 5938, August 2010.

   [RFC6038]  Morton, A. and L. Ciavattone, "Two-Way Active Measurement
              Protocol (TWAMP) Reflect Octets and Symmetrical Size
              Features", RFC 6038, October 2010.

   [RFC6703]  Morton, A., Ramachandran, G., and G. Maguluri, "Reporting
              IP Network Performance Metrics: Different Points of View",
              RFC 6703, August 2012.

9.2.  Informative References

   [I-D.ietf-ippm-lmap-path]
              Bagnulo, M., Burbridge, T., Crawford, S., Eardley, P., and
              A. Morton, "A Reference Path and Measurement Points for
              LMAP", draft-ietf-ippm-lmap-path-04 (work in progress),
              June 2014.

   [I-D.ietf-ippm-model-based-metrics]
              Mathis, M. and A. Morton, "Model Based Bulk Performance
              Metrics", draft-ietf-ippm-model-based-metrics-03 (work in
              progress), July 2014.

   [RFC3148]  Mathis, M. and M. Allman, "A Framework for Defining
              Empirical Bulk Transfer Capacity Metrics", RFC 3148, July
              2001.

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   [RFC5136]  Chimento, P. and J. Ishac, "Defining Network Capacity",
              RFC 5136, February 2008.

   [RFC6812]  Chiba, M., Clemm, A., Medley, S., Salowey, J., Thombare,
              S., and E. Yedavalli, "Cisco Service-Level Assurance
              Protocol", RFC 6812, January 2013.

Author's Address

   Al Morton
   AT&T Labs
   200 Laurel Avenue South
   Middletown,, NJ  07748
   USA

   Phone: +1 732 420 1571
   Fax:   +1 732 368 1192
   Email: acmorton@att.com
   URI:   http://home.comcast.net/~acmacm/

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