Test Plan and Results for Advancing RFC 2679 on the Standards Track
draft-ietf-ippm-testplan-rfc2679-00
The information below is for an old version of the document.
| Document | Type | Active Internet-Draft (ippm WG) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Authors | Len Ciavattone , Ruediger Geib , Al Morton , Matthias Wieser | ||
| Last updated | 2011-10-21 | ||
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draft-ietf-ippm-testplan-rfc2679-00
Network Working Group L. Ciavattone
Internet-Draft AT&T Labs
Intended status: Informational R. Geib
Expires: April 23, 2012 Deutsche Telekom
A. Morton
AT&T Labs
M. Wieser
University of Applied Sciences
Darmstadt
October 21, 2011
Test Plan and Results for Advancing RFC 2679 on the Standards Track
draft-ietf-ippm-testplan-rfc2679-00
Abstract
This memo proposes to advance a performance metric RFC along the
standards track, specifically RFC 2679 on One-way Delay Metrics.
Observing that the metric definitions themselves should be the
primary focus rather than the implementations of metrics, this memo
describes the test procedures to evaluate specific metric requirement
clauses to determine if the requirement has been interpreted and
implemented as intended. Two completely independent implementations
have been tested against the key specifications of RFC 2679.
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 April 23, 2012.
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Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2011 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
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not be created outside the IETF Standards Process, except to format
it for publication as an RFC or to translate it into languages other
than English.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.1. RFC 2679 Coverage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2. A Definition-centric metric advancement process . . . . . . . 5
3. Test configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4. Error Calibration, RFC 2679 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.1. NetProbe Error and Type-P . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.2. Perfas Error and Type-P . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5. Pre-determined Limits on Equivalence . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6. Tests to evaluate RFC 2679 Specifications . . . . . . . . . . 14
6.1. One-way Delay, ADK Sample Comparison - Same & Cross
Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
6.1.1. NetProbe Same-implementation results . . . . . . . . . 16
6.1.2. Perfas Same-implementation results . . . . . . . . . . 17
6.1.3. One-way Delay, Cross-Implementation ADK Comparison . . 18
6.1.4. Conclusions on the ADK Results for One-way Delay . . . 18
6.2. One-way Delay, Loss threshold, RFC 2679 . . . . . . . . . 19
6.2.1. NetProbe results for Loss Threshold . . . . . . . . . 20
6.2.2. Perfas Results for Loss Threshold . . . . . . . . . . 20
6.2.3. Conclusions for Loss Threshold . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
6.3. One-way Delay, First-bit to Last bit, RFC 2679 . . . . . . 20
6.3.1. NetProbe and Perfas Results for Serialization . . . . 21
6.3.2. Conclusions for Serialization . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
6.4. One-way Delay, Difference Sample Metric (Lab) . . . . . . 22
6.4.1. NetProbe results for Differential Delay . . . . . . . 23
6.4.2. Perfas results for Differential Delay . . . . . . . . 24
6.4.3. Conclusions for Differential Delay . . . . . . . . . . 24
6.5. Implementation of Statistics for One-way Delay . . . . . . 24
7. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
8. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
9. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
10. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
10.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
10.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
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1. Introduction
The IETF (IP Performance Metrics working group, IPPM) has considered
how to advance their metrics along the standards track since 2001,
with the initial publication of Bradner/Paxson/Mankin's memo [ref to
work in progress, draft-bradner-metricstest-]. The original proposal
was to compare the results of implementations of the metrics, because
the usual procedures for advancing protocols did not appear to apply.
It was found to be difficult to achieve consensus on exactly how to
compare implementations, since there were many legitimate sources of
variation that would emerge in the results despite the best attempts
to keep the network paths equal, and because considerable variation
was allowed in the parameters (and therefore implementation) of each
metric. Flexibility in metric definitions, essential for
customization and broad appeal, made the comparison task quite
difficult.
A renewed work effort sought to investigate ways in which the
measurement variability could be reduced and thereby simplify the
problem of comparison for equivalence.
There is *preliminary* consensus [I-D.ietf-ippm-metrictest] that the
metric definitions should be the primary focus of evaluation rather
than the implementations of metrics, and equivalent results are
deemed to be evidence that the metric specifications are clear and
unambiguous. This is the metric specification equivalent of protocol
interoperability. The advancement process either produces confidence
that the metric definitions and supporting material are clearly
worded and unambiguous, OR, identifies ways in which the metric
definitions should be revised to achieve clarity.
The process should also permit identification of options that were
not implemented, so that they can be removed from the advancing
specification (this is an aspect more typical of protocol advancement
along the standards track).
This memo's purpose is to implement the current approach for
[RFC2679]. It was prepared to help progress discussions on the topic
of metric advancement, both through e-mail and at the upcoming IPPM
meeting at IETF.
In particular, consensus is sought on the extent of tolerable errors
when assessing equivalence in the results. In discussions, the IPPM
working group agreed that test plan and procedures should include the
threshold for determining equivalence, and this information should be
available in advance of cross-implementation comparisons. This memo
includes procedures for same-implementation comparisons to help set
the equivalence threshold.
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Another aspect of the metric RFC advancement process is the
requirement to document the work and results. The procedures of
[RFC2026] are expanded in[RFC5657], including sample implementation
and interoperability reports. This memo follows the template in
[I-D.morton-ippm-advance-metrics] for the report that accompanies the
protocol action request submitted to the Area Director, including
description of the test set-up, procedures, results for each
implementation and conclusions.
1.1. RFC 2679 Coverage
This plan, in it's first draft version, does not cover all critical
requirements and sections of [RFC2679]. Material will be added as it
is "discovered" (not all requirements use requirements language).
2. A Definition-centric metric advancement process
The process described in Section 3.5 of [I-D.ietf-ippm-metrictest]
takes as a first principle that the metric definitions, embodied in
the text of the RFCs, are the objects that require evaluation and
possible revision in order to advance to the next step on the
standards track.
IF two implementations do not measure an equivalent singleton or
sample, or produce the an equivalent statistic,
AND sources of measurement error do not adequately explain the lack
of agreement,
THEN the details of each implementation should be audited along with
the exact definition text, to determine if there is a lack of clarity
that has caused the implementations to vary in a way that affects the
correspondence of the results.
IF there was a lack of clarity or multiple legitimate interpretations
of the definition text,
THEN the text should be modified and the resulting memo proposed for
consensus and advancement along the standards track.
Finally, all the findings MUST be documented in a report that can
support advancement on the standards track, similar to those
described in [RFC5657]. The list of measurement devices used in
testing satisfies the implementation requirement, while the test
results provide information on the quality of each specification in
the metric RFC (the surrogate for feature interoperability).
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The figure below illustrates this process:
,---.
/ \
( Start )
\ / Implementations
`-+-' +-------+
| /| 1 `.
+---+----+ / +-------+ `.-----------+ ,-------.
| RFC | / |Check for | ,' was RFC `. YES
| | / |Equivalence..... clause x -------+
| |/ +-------+ |under | `. clear? ,' |
| Metric \.....| 2 ....relevant | `---+---' +----+---+
| Metric |\ +-------+ |identical | No | |Report |
| Metric | \ |network | +---+---. |results+|
| ... | \ |conditions | |Modify | |Advance |
| | \ +-------+ | | |Spec +----+ RFC |
+--------+ \| n |.'+-----------+ +-------+ |request?|
+-------+ +--------+
3. Test configuration
One metric implementation used was NetProbe version 5.8.5, (an
earlier version is used in the WIPM system and deployed world-wide).
NetProbe uses UDP packets of variable size, and can produce test
streams with Periodic [RFC3432] or Poisson [RFC2330] sample
distributions.
The other metric implementation used was Perfas+ version 3.1,
developed by Deutsche Telekom. Perfas+ uses UDP unicast packets of
variable size (but supports also TCP and multicast). Test streams
with periodic, Poisson or uniform sample distributions may be used.
Figure 2 shows a view of the test path as each Implementation's test
flows pass through the Internet and the L2TPv3 tunnel IDs (1 and 2),
based on Figure 1 of [I-D.ietf-ippm-metrictest].
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+----+ +----+ +----+ +----+
|Imp1| |Imp1| ,---. |Imp2| |Imp2|
+----+ +----+ / \ +-------+ +----+ +----+
| V100 | V200 / \ | Tunnel| | V300 | V400
| | ( ) | Head | | |
+--------+ +------+ | |__| Router| +----------+
|Ethernet| |Tunnel| |Internet | +---B---+ |Ethernet |
|Switch |--|Head |-| | | |Switch |
+-+--+---+ |Router| | | +---+---+--+--+--+----+
|__| +--A---+ ( ) |Network| |__|
\ / |Emulat.|
U-turn \ / |"netem"| U-turn
V300 to V400 `-+-' +-------+ V100 to V200
Implementations ,---. +--------+
+~~~~~~~~~~~/ \~~~~~~| Remote |
+------->-----F2->-| / \ |->---. |
| +---------+ | Tunnel ( ) | | |
| | transmit|-F1->-| ID 1 ( ) |->. | |
| | Imp 1 | +~~~~~~~~~| |~~~~| | | |
| | receive |-<--+ ( ) | F1 F2 |
| +---------+ | |Internet | | | | |
*-------<-----+ F1 | | | | | |
+---------+ | | +~~~~~~~~~| |~~~~| | | |
| transmit|-* *-| | | |<-* | |
| Imp 2 | | Tunnel ( ) | | |
| receive |-<-F2-| ID 2 \ / |<----* |
+---------+ +~~~~~~~~~~~\ /~~~~~~| Switch |
`-+-' +--------+
Illustrations of a test setup with a bi-directional tunnel. The
upper diagram emphasizes the VLAN connectivity and geographical
location. The lower diagram shows example flows traveling between
two measurement implementations (for simplicity, only two flows are
shown).
Figure 1
The testing employs the Layer 2 Tunnel Protocol, version 3 (L2TPv3)
[RFC3931] tunnel between test sites on the Internet. The tunnel IP
and L2TPv3 headers are intended to conceal the test equipment
addresses and ports from hash functions that would tend to spread
different test streams across parallel network resources, with likely
variation in performance as a result.
At each end of the tunnel, one pair of VLANs encapsulated in the
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tunnel are looped-back so that test traffic is returned to each test
site. Thus, test streams traverse the L2TP tunnel twice, but appear
to be one-way tests from the test equipment point of view.
The network emulator is a host running Fedora 14 Linux
[http://fedoraproject.org/] with IP forwarding enabled and the
"netem" Network emulator as part of the Fedora Kernel 2.6.35.11 [http
://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/networking/netem]
loaded and operating. Connectivity across the netem/Fedora host was
accomplished by bridging Ethernet VLAN interfaces together with
"brctl" commands (e.g., eth1.100 <-> eth2.100). The netem emulator
was activated on one interface (eth1) and only operates on test
streams traveling in one direction. In some tests, independent netem
instances operated separately on each VLAN.
The links between the netem emulator host and router and switch were
found to be 100baseTx-HD (100Mbps half duplex) as reported by "mii-
tool"when the testing was complete. Use of Half Duplex was not
intended, but probably added a small amount of delay variation that
could have been avoided in full duplex mode.
Each individual test was run with common packet rates (1 pps, 10pps)
Poisson/Periodic distributions, and IP packet sizes of 64, 340, and
500 Bytes.
For these tests, a stream of at least 300 packets were sent from
Source to Destination in each implementation. Periodic streams (as
per [RFC3432]) with 1 second spacing were used, except as noted.
With the L2TPv3 tunnel in use, the metric name for the testing
configured here (with respect to the IP header exposed to Internet
processing) is:
Type-IP-protocol-115-One-way-Delay-<StreamType>-Stream
With (Section 4.2. [RFC2679]) Metric Parameters:
+ Src, the IP address of a host (12.3.167.16 or 193.159.144.8)
+ Dst, the IP address of a host (193.159.144.8 or 12.3.167.16)
+ T0, a time
+ Tf, a time
+ lambda, a rate in reciprocal seconds
+ Thresh, a maximum waiting time in seconds (see Section 3.82 of
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[RFC2679]) And (Section 4.3. [RFC2679])
Metric Units: A sequence of pairs; the elements of each pair are:
+ T, a time, and
+ dT, either a real number or an undefined number of seconds.
The values of T in the sequence are monotonic increasing. Note that
T would be a valid parameter to Type-P-One-way-Delay, and that dT
would be a valid value of Type-P-One-way-Delay.
Also, Section 3.8.4 of [RFC2679] recommends that the path SHOULD be
reported. In this test set-up, most of the path details will be
concealed from the implementations by the L2TPv3 tunnels, thus a more
informative path trace route can be conducted by the routers at each
location.
When NetProbe is used in production, a traceroute is conducted in
parallel with, and at the outset of measurements.
Perfas+ does not support traceroute.
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IPLGW#traceroute 193.159.144.8
Type escape sequence to abort.
Tracing the route to 193.159.144.8
1 12.126.218.245 [AS 7018] 0 msec 0 msec 4 msec
2 cr84.n54ny.ip.att.net (12.123.2.158) [AS 7018] 4 msec 4 msec
cr83.n54ny.ip.att.net (12.123.2.26) [AS 7018] 4 msec
3 cr1.n54ny.ip.att.net (12.122.105.49) [AS 7018] 4 msec
cr2.n54ny.ip.att.net (12.122.115.93) [AS 7018] 0 msec
cr1.n54ny.ip.att.net (12.122.105.49) [AS 7018] 0 msec
4 n54ny02jt.ip.att.net (12.122.80.225) [AS 7018] 4 msec 0 msec
n54ny02jt.ip.att.net (12.122.80.237) [AS 7018] 4 msec
5 192.205.34.182 [AS 7018] 0 msec
192.205.34.150 [AS 7018] 0 msec
192.205.34.182 [AS 7018] 4 msec
6 da-rg12-i.DA.DE.NET.DTAG.DE (62.154.1.30) [AS 3320] 88 msec 88 msec
88 msec
7 217.89.29.62 [AS 3320] 88 msec 88 msec 88 msec
8 217.89.29.55 [AS 3320] 88 msec 88 msec 88 msec
9 * * *
It was only possible to conduct the traceroute for the measured path
on one of the tunnel-head routers (the normal trace facilities of the
measurement systems are confounded by the L2TPv3 tunnel
encapsulation).
4. Error Calibration, RFC 2679
An implementation is required to report on its error calibration in
Section 3.8 of [RFC2679] (also required in Section 4.8 for sample
metrics). Sections 3.6, 3.7, and 3.8 of [RFC2679] give the detailed
formulation of the errors and uncertainties for calibration. In
summary, Section 3.7.1 of [RFC2679] describes the total time-varying
uncertainty as:
Esynch(t)+ Rsource + Rdest
where:
Esynch(t) denotes an upper bound on the magnitude of clock
synchronization uncertainty.
Rsource and Rdest denote the resolution of the source clock and the
destination clock, respectively.
Further, Section 3.7.2 of [RFC2679] describes the total wire-time
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uncertainty as
Hsource + Hdest
referring to the upper bounds on host-time to wire-time for source
and destination, respectively.
Section 3.7.3 of [RFC2679] describes a test with small packets over
an isolated minimal network where the results can be used to estimate
systematic and random components of the sum of the above errors or
uncertainties. In a test with hundreds of singletons, the median is
the systematic error and when the median is subtracted from all
singletons, the remaining variability is the random error.
The test context, or Type-P of the test packets, must also be
reported, as required in Section 3.8 of [RFC2679] and all metrics
defined there. Type-P is defined in Section 13 of [RFC2330] (as are
many terms used below).
4.1. NetProbe Error and Type-P
Type-P for this test was IP-UDP with Best Effort DCSP. These headers
were encapsulated according to the L2TPv3 specifications [RFC3931],
and thus may not influence the treatment received as the packets
traversed the Internet.
In general, NetProbe error is dependent on the specific version and
installation details.
NetProbe operates using host time above the UDP layer, which is
different from the wire-time preferred in [RFC2330], but can be
identified as a source of error according to Section 3.7.2 of
[RFC2679].
Accuracy of NetProbe measurements is usually limited by NTP
synchronization performance (which is typically taken as ~+/-1ms
error or greater), although the installation used in this testing
often exhibits errors much less than typical for NTP. The primary
stratum 1 NTP server is closely located on a sparsely utilized
network management LAN, thus it avoids many concerns raised in
Section 10 of[RFC2330] (in fact, smooth adjustment, long-term drift
analysis and compensation, and infrequent adjustment all lead to
stability during measurement intervals, the main concern).
The resolution of the reported results is 1us (us = microsecond) in
the version of NetProbe tested here, which contributes to at least
+/-1us error.
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NetProbe implements a time-keeping sanity check on sending and
receiving time-stamping processes. When the significant process
interruption takes place, individual test packets are flagged as
possibly containing unusual time errors, and are excluded from the
sample used for all "time" metrics.
We performed a NetProbe calibration of the type described in Section
3.7.3 of [RFC2679], using 64 Byte packets over a cross-connect cable.
The results estimate systematic and random components of the sum of
the Hsource + Hdest errors or uncertainties. In a test with 300
singletons conducted over 30 seconds (periodic sample with 100ms
spacing), the median is the systematic error and the remaining
variability is the random error. One set of results is tabulated
below:
(Results from the "R" software environment for statistical computing
and graphics - http://www.r-project.org/ )
> summary(XD4CAL)
CAL1 CAL2 CAL3
Min. : 89.0 Min. : 68.00 Min. : 54.00
1st Qu.: 99.0 1st Qu.: 77.00 1st Qu.: 63.00
Median :110.0 Median : 79.00 Median : 65.00
Mean :116.8 Mean : 83.74 Mean : 69.65
3rd Qu.:127.0 3rd Qu.: 88.00 3rd Qu.: 74.00
Max. :205.0 Max. :177.00 Max. :163.00
>
NetProbe Calibration with Cross-Connect Cable, one-way delay values
in microseconds (us)
The median or systematic error can be as high as 110 us, and the
range of the random error is also on the order of 116 us for all
streams.
Also, anticipating the Anderson-Darling K-sample (ADK) comparisons to
follow, we corrected the CAL2 values for the difference between means
between CAL2 and CAL3 (as specified in [I-D.ietf-ippm-metrictest]),
and found strong support for the (Null Hypothesis that) the samples
are from the same distribution (resolution of 1 us and alpha equal
0.05 and 0.01)
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> XD4CVCAL2 <- XD4CAL$CAL2 - (mean(XD4CAL$CAL2)-mean(XD4CAL$CAL3))
> boxplot(XD4CVCAL2,XD4CAL$CAL3)
> XD4CV2_ADK <- adk.test(XD4CVCAL2, XD4CAL$CAL3)
> XD4CV2_ADK
Anderson-Darling k-sample test.
Number of samples: 2
Sample sizes: 300 300
Total number of values: 600
Number of unique values: 97
Mean of Anderson Darling Criterion: 1
Standard deviation of Anderson Darling Criterion: 0.75896
T = (Anderson Darling Criterion - mean)/sigma
Null Hypothesis: All samples come from a common population.
t.obs P-value extrapolation
not adj. for ties 0.71734 0.17042 0
adj. for ties -0.39553 0.44589 1
>
4.2. Perfas Error and Type-P
Perfas+ is configured to use GPS synchronisation and uses NTP
synchronization as a fall-back or default. GPS synchronisation
worked throughout this test with the exception of the calibration
stated here (one implementation was NTP synchronised only). The time
stamp accuracy typically is 0.1 ms.
The resolution of the results reported by Perfas+ is 1us (us =
microsecond) in the version tested here, which contributes to at
least +/-1us error.
Port 5001 5002 5003
Min. -227 -226 294
Median -169 -167 323
Mean -159 -157 335
Max. 6 -52 376
s 102 102 93
Perfas Calibration with Cross-Connect Cable, one-way delay values in
microseconds (us)
The median or systematic error can be as high as 323 us, and the
range of the random error is also less than 232 us for all streams.
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5. Pre-determined Limits on Equivalence
In this section, we provide the numerical limits on comparisons
between implementations, in order to declare that the results are
equivalent and therefore, the tested specification is clear.
A key point is that the allowable errors, corrections, and confidence
levels only need to be sufficient to detect mis-interpretation of the
tested specification resulting in diverging implementations.
Also, the allowable error must be sufficient to compensate for
measured path differences. It was simply not possible to measure
fully identical paths in the VLAN-loopback test configuration used,
and this practical compromise must be taken into account.
For Anderson-Darling K-sample (ADK) comparisons, the required
confidence factor for the cross-implementation comparisons SHALL be
the smallest of:
o 0.95 confidence factor at 1ms resolution, or
o the smallest confidence factor (in combination with resolution) of
the two same-implementation comparisons for the same test
conditions.
A constant time accuracy error of as much as +/-0.5ms MAY be removed
from one implementation's distributions (all singletons) before the
ADK comparison is conducted.
A constant propagation delay error (due to use of different sub-nets
between the switch and measurement devices at each location) of as
much as +2ms MAY be removed from one implementation's distributions
(all singletons) before the ADK comparison is conducted.
For comparisons involving the mean of a sample or other central
statistics, the limits on both the time accuracy error and the
propagation delay error constants given above also apply.
6. Tests to evaluate RFC 2679 Specifications
This section describes some results from real-world (cross-Internet)
tests with measurement devices implementing IPPM metrics and a
network emulator to create relevant conditions, to determine whether
the metric definitions were interpreted consistently by implementors.
The procedures are slightly modified from the original procedures
contained in Appendix A.1 of [I-D.ietf-ippm-metrictest]. The
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modifications include the use of the mean statistic for comparisons.
Note that there are only five instances of the requirement term
"MUST" in [RFC2679] outside of the boilerplate and [RFC2119]
reference.
6.1. One-way Delay, ADK Sample Comparison - Same & Cross Implementation
This test determines if implementations produce results that appear
to come from a common delay distribution, as an overall evaluation of
Section 4 of [RFC2679], "A Definition for Samples of One-way Delay".
Same-implementation comparison results help to set the threshold of
equivalence that will be applied to cross-implementation comparisons.
This test is intended to evaluate measurements in sections 3 and 4 of
[RFC2679].
By testing the extent to which the distributions of one-way delay
singletons from two implementations of [RFC2679] appear to be from
the same distribution, we economize on comparisons, because comparing
a set of individual summary statistics (as defined in Section 5 of
[RFC2679]) would require another set of individual evaluations of
equivalence. Instead, we can simply check which statistics were
implemented, and report on those facts.
1. Configure an L2TPv3 path between test sites, and each pair of
measurement devices to operate tests in their designated pair of
VLANs.
2. Measure a sample of one-way delay singletons with 2 or more
implementations, using identical options and network emulator
settings (if used).
3. Measure a sample of one-way delay singletons with *four*
instances of the *same* implementations, using identical options,
noting that connectivity differences SHOULD be the same as for
the cross implementation testing.
4. Apply the ADK comparison procedures (see Appendix C of
[I-D.ietf-ippm-metrictest]) and determine the resolution and
confidence factor for distribution equivalence of each same-
implementation comparison and each cross-implementation
comparison.
5. Take the coarsest resolution and confidence factor for
distribution equivalence from the same-implementation pairs, or
the limit defined in Section 5 above, as a limit on the
equivalence threshold for these experimental conditions.
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6. Apply constant correction factors to all singletons of the sample
distributions, as described and limited in Section 5 above.
7. Compare the cross-implementation ADK performance with the
equivalence threshold determined in step 5 to determine if
equivalence can be declared.
The common parameters used for tests in this section are:
o IP header + payload = 64 octets
o Periodic sampling at 1 packet per second
o Test duration = 300 seconds (March 29)
The netem emulator was set for 100ms average delay, with uniform
delay variation of +/-50ms. In this experiment, the netem emulator
was configured to operate independently on each VLAN and thus the
emulator itself is a potential source of error when comparing streams
that traverse the test path in different directions.
In the result analysis of this section:
o All comparisons used 1 microsecond resolution.
o No Correction Factors were applied.
o The 0.95 confidence factor (1.960 for paired stream comparison)
was used.
6.1.1. NetProbe Same-implementation results
A single same-implementation comparison fails the ADK criterion (s1
<-> sB). We note that these streams traversed the test path in
opposite directions, making the live network factors a possibility to
explain the difference.
All other pair comparisons pass the ADK criterion.
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+------------------------------------------------------+
| | | | |
| ti.obs (P) | s1 | s2 | sA |
| | | | |
.............|.............|.............|.............|
| | | | |
| s2 | 0.25 (0.28) | | |
| | | | |
...........................|.............|.............|
| | | | |
| sA | 0.60 (0.19) |-0.80 (0.57) | |
| | | | |
...........................|.............|.............|
| | | | |
| sB | 2.64 (0.03) | 0.07 (0.31) |-0.52 (0.48) |
| | | | |
+------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+
NetProbe ADK Results for same-implementation
6.1.2. Perfas Same-implementation results
All pair comparisons pass the ADK criterion.
+------------------------------------------------------+
| | | | |
| ti.obs (P) | p1 | p2 | p3 |
| | | | |
.............|.............|.............|.............|
| | | | |
| p2 | 0.06 (0.32) | | |
| | | | |
.........................................|.............|
| | | | |
| p3 | 1.09 (0.12) | 0.37 (0.24) | |
| | | | |
...........................|.............|.............|
| | | | |
| p4 |-0.81 (0.57) |-0.13 (0.37) | 1.36 (0.09) |
| | | | |
+------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+
Perfas ADK Results for same-implementation
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6.1.3. One-way Delay, Cross-Implementation ADK Comparison
The cross-implementation results are compared using a combined ADK
analysis [ref], where all NetProbe results are compared with all
Perfas results after testing that the combined same-implementation
results pass the ADK criterion.
When 4 (same) samples are compared, the ADK criterion for 0.95
confidence is 1.915, and when all 8 (cross) samples are compared it
is 1.85.
Combination of Anderson-Darling K-Sample Tests.
Sample sizes within each data set:
Data set 1 : 299 297 298 300 (NetProbe)
Data set 2 : 300 300 298 300 (Perfas)
Total sample size per data set: 1194 1198
Number of unique values per data set: 1188 1192
...
Null Hypothesis:
All samples within a data set come from a common distribution.
The common distribution may change between data sets.
NetProbe ti.obs P-value extrapolation
not adj. for ties 0.64999 0.21355 0
adj. for ties 0.64833 0.21392 0
Perfas
not adj. for ties 0.55968 0.23442 0
adj. for ties 0.55840 0.23473 0
Combined Anderson-Darling Criterion:
tc.obs P-value extrapolation
not adj. for ties 0.85537 0.17967 0
adj. for ties 0.85329 0.18010 0
The combined same-implementation samples and the combined cross-
implementation comparison all pass the ADK criteria at P>=0.18 and
support the Null Hypothesis (both data sets come from a common
distribution).
We also see that the paired ADK comparisons are rather critical.
Although the NetProbe s1-sB comparison failed, the combined data set
from 4 streams passed the ADK criterion easily.
6.1.4. Conclusions on the ADK Results for One-way Delay
Similar testing was repeated many times in the months of March and
April 2011. There were many experiments where a single test stream
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from NetProbe or Perfas proved to be different from the others in
paired comparisons (even same comparisons). When the out lier stream
was removed from the comparison, the remaining streams passed
combined ADK criterion. Also, the application of correction factors
resulted in higher comparison success.
We conclude that the two implementations are capable of producing
equivalent one-way delay distributions based on their interpretation
of [RFC2679] .
6.2. One-way Delay, Loss threshold, RFC 2679
This test determines if implementations use the same configured
maximum waiting time delay from one measurement to another under
different delay conditions, and correctly declare packets arriving in
excess of the waiting time threshold as lost.
See Section 3.5 of [RFC2679], 3rd bullet point and also Section 3.8.2
of [RFC2679].
1. configure an L2TPv3 path between test sites, and each pair of
measurement devices to operate tests in their designated pair of
VLANs.
2. configure the network emulator to add 1.0 sec one-way constant
delay in one direction of transmission.
3. measure (average) one-way delay with 2 or more implementations,
using identical waiting time thresholds (Thresh) for loss set at
3 seconds.
4. configure the network emulator to add 3 sec one-way constant
delay in one direction of transmission equivalent to 2 seconds of
additional one-way delay (or change the path delay while test is
in progress, when there are sufficient packets at the first delay
setting)
5. repeat/continue measurements
6. observe that the increase measured in step 5 caused all packets
with 2 sec additional delay to be declared lost, and that all
packets that arrive successfully in step 3 are assigned a valid
one-way delay.
The common parameters used for tests in this section are:
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o IP header + payload = 64 octets
o Poisson sampling at lambda = 1 packet per second
o Test duration = 900 seconds total (March 21)
The netem emulator was set to add constant delays as specified in the
procedure above.
6.2.1. NetProbe results for Loss Threshold
In NetProbe, the Loss Threshold is implemented uniformly over all
packets as a post-processing routine. With the Loss Threshold set at
3 seconds, all packets with one-way delay >3 seconds are marked
"Lost" and included in the Lost Packet list with their transmission
time (as required in Section 3.3 of [RFC2680]). This resulted in 342
packets designated as lost in one of the test streams (with average
delay = 3.091 sec).
6.2.2. Perfas Results for Loss Threshold
Perfas uses a fixed Loss Threshold which was not adjustable during
this study. The Loss Threshold is approximately one minute, and
emulation of a delay of this size was not attempted. However, it is
possible to implement any delay threshold desired with a post-
processing routine and subsequent analysis. Using this method, 195
packets would be declared lost (with average delay = 3.091 sec).
6.2.3. Conclusions for Loss Threshold
Both implementations assume that any constant delay value desired can
be used as the Loss Threshold, since all delays are stored as a pair
<Time, Delay> as required in [RFC2679] . This is a simple way to
enforce the constant loss threshold envisioned in [RFC2679] (see
specific section references above). We take the position that the
assumption of post-processing is compliant, and that the text of the
RFC should be revised slightly to include this point.
6.3. One-way Delay, First-bit to Last bit, RFC 2679
This test determines if implementations register the same relative
change in delay from one packet size to another, indicating that the
first-to-last time-stamping convention has been followed. This test
tends to cancel the sources of error which may be present in an
implementation.
See Section 3.7.2 of [RFC2679], and Section 10.2 of [RFC2330].
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1. configure an L2TPv3 path between test sites, and each pair of
measurement devices to operate tests in their designated pair of
VLANs, and ideally including a low-speed link (it was not
possible to change the link configuration during testing, so the
lowest speed link present was the basis for serialization time
comparisons).
2. measure (average) one-way delay with 2 or more implementations,
using identical options and equal size small packets (64 octet IP
header and payload)
3. maintain the same path with additional emulated 100 ms one-way
delay
4. measure (average) one-way delay with 2 or more implementations,
using identical options and equal size large packets (500 octet
IP header and payload)
5. observe that the increase measured between steps 2 and 4 is
equivalent to the increase in ms expected due to the larger
serialization time for each implementation. Most of the
measurement errors in each system should cancel, if they are
stationary.
The common parameters used for tests in this section are:
o IP header + payload = 64 octets
o Periodic sampling at l packet per second
o Test duration = 300 seconds total (April 12)
The netem emulator was set to add constant 100ms delay.
6.3.1. NetProbe and Perfas Results for Serialization
When the IP header + payload size was increased from 64 octets to 500
octets, there was a delay increase observed.
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Mean Delays in us
NetProbe
Payload s1 s2 sA sB
500 190893 191179 190892 190971
64 189642 189785 189747 189467
Diff 1251 1394 1145 1505
Perfas
Payload p1 p2 p3 p4
500 190908 190911 191126 190709
64 189706 189752 189763 190220
Diff 1202 1159 1363 489
Serialization tests, all values in microseconds
The typical delay increase when the larger packets were used was 1.1
to 1.5 ms (with one outlier). The typical measurements indicate that
a link with approximately 3 Mbit/s capacity is present on the path.
Through investigation of the facilities involved, it was determined
that the lowest speed link was approximately 45 Mbit/s, and therefore
the estimated difference should be about 0.077 ms. The observed
differences are much higher.
The unexpected large delay difference was also the outcome when
testing serialization times in a lab environment, using the NIST Net
Emulator and NetProbe [ref to earlier lab tests].
6.3.2. Conclusions for Serialization
Since it was not possible to confirm the estimated serialization time
increases in field tests, we resort to examination of the
implementations to determine compliance.
NetProbe performs all time stamping above the IP-layer, accepting
that some compromises must be made to achieve extreme portability and
measurement scale. Therefore, the first-to-last bit convention is
supported because the serialization time is included in the one-way
delay measurement, enabling comparison with other implementations.
Perfas >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> TBD
6.4. One-way Delay, Difference Sample Metric (Lab)
This test determines if implementations register the same relative
increase in delay from one measurement to another under different
delay conditions. This test tends to cancel the sources of error
which may be present in an implementation.
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This test is intended to evaluate measurements in sections 3 and 4 of
[RFC2679].
1. configure an L2TPv3 path between test sites, and each pair of
measurement devices to operate tests in their designated pair of
VLANs.
2. measure (average) one-way delay with 2 or more implementations,
using identical options
3. configure the path with X+Y ms one-way delay
4. repeat measurements
5. observe that the (average) increase measured in steps 2 and 4 is
~Y ms for each implementation. Most of the measurement errors in
each system should cancel, if they are stationary.
In this test, X=1000ms and Y=1000ms.
The common parameters used for tests in this section are:
o IP header + payload = 64 octets
o Poisson sampling at lambda = 1 packet per second
o Test duration = 900 seconds total (March 21)
The netem emulator was set to add constant delays as specified in the
procedure above.
6.4.1. NetProbe results for Differential Delay
Average pre-increase delay, microseconds 1089868.0
Average post 1s additional, microseconds 2089686.0
Difference (should be ~= Y = 1s) 999818.0
Average delays before/after 1 second increase
The NetProbe implementation observed a 1 second increase with a 182
microsecond error (assuming that the netem emulated delay difference
is exact).
We note that this differential delay test has been run under lab
conditions and published in prior work [ref to "advance metrics"
draft]. The error was 6 microseconds.
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6.4.2. Perfas results for Differential Delay
Average pre-increase delay, microseconds 1089794.0
Average post 1s additional, microseconds 2089801.0
Difference (should be ~= Y = 1s) 1000007.0
Average delays before/after 1 second increase
The Perfas implementation observed a 1 second increase with a 7
microsecond error.
6.4.3. Conclusions for Differential Delay
Again, the live network conditions appear to have influenced the
results, but both implementations measured the same delay increase
within their calibration accuracy.
6.5. Implementation of Statistics for One-way Delay
The ADK tests the extent to which the sample distributions of one-way
delay singletons from two implementations of [RFC2679] appear to be
from the same overall distribution. By testing this way, we
economize on the number of comparisons, because comparing a set of
individual summary statistics (as defined in Section 5 of [RFC2679])
would require another set of individual evaluations of equivalence.
Instead, we can simply check which statistics were implemented, and
report on those facts, noting that Section 5 of [RFC2679] does not
specify the calculations exactly, and gives only some illustrative
examples.
NetProbe Perfas
5.1. Type-P-One-way-Delay-Percentile yes no
5.2. Type-P-One-way-Delay-Median yes no
5.3. Type-P-One-way-Delay-Minimum yes yes
5.4. Type-P-One-way-Delay-Inverse-Percentile no no
Implementation of Section 5 Statistics
5.1. Type-P-One-way-Delay-Percentile 5.2. Type-P-One-way-Delay-
Median 5.3. Type-P-One-way-Delay-Minimum 5.4. Type-P-One-way-Delay-
Inverse-Percentile
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7. Security Considerations
The security considerations that apply to any active measurement of
live networks are relevant here as well. See [RFC4656] and
[RFC5357].
8. IANA Considerations
This memo makes no requests of IANA, and hopes that IANA will be as
accepting of our new computer overlords as the authors intend to be.
9. Acknowledgements
The authors thank Lars Eggert for his continued encouragement to
advance the IPPM metrics during his tenure as AD Advisor.
Nicole Kowalski supplied the needed CPE router for the NetProbe side
of the test set-up, and graciously managed her testing in spite of
issues caused by dual-use of the router. Thanks Nicole!
The "NetProbe Team" also acknowledges many useful discussions with
Ganga Maguluri.
10. References
10.1. Normative References
[I-D.ietf-ippm-metrictest]
Geib, R., Morton, A., Fardid, R., and A. Steinmitz, "IPPM
standard advancement testing",
draft-ietf-ippm-metrictest-03 (work in progress),
June 2011.
[RFC2026] Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision
3", BCP 9, RFC 2026, October 1996.
[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.
[RFC2679] Almes, G., Kalidindi, S., and M. Zekauskas, "A One-way
Delay Metric for IPPM", RFC 2679, September 1999.
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[RFC2680] Almes, G., Kalidindi, S., and M. Zekauskas, "A One-way
Packet Loss Metric for IPPM", RFC 2680, September 1999.
[RFC3432] Raisanen, V., Grotefeld, G., and A. Morton, "Network
performance measurement with periodic streams", RFC 3432,
November 2002.
[RFC4656] Shalunov, S., Teitelbaum, B., Karp, A., Boote, J., and M.
Zekauskas, "A One-way Active Measurement Protocol
(OWAMP)", RFC 4656, September 2006.
[RFC4814] Newman, D. and T. Player, "Hash and Stuffing: Overlooked
Factors in Network Device Benchmarking", RFC 4814,
March 2007.
[RFC5226] Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, "Guidelines for Writing an
IANA Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26, RFC 5226,
May 2008.
[RFC5357] Hedayat, K., Krzanowski, R., Morton, A., Yum, K., and J.
Babiarz, "A Two-Way Active Measurement Protocol (TWAMP)",
RFC 5357, October 2008.
[RFC5657] Dusseault, L. and R. Sparks, "Guidance on Interoperation
and Implementation Reports for Advancement to Draft
Standard", BCP 9, RFC 5657, September 2009.
10.2. Informative References
[I-D.morton-ippm-advance-metrics]
Morton, A., "Lab Test Results for Advancing Metrics on the
Standards Track", draft-morton-ippm-advance-metrics-02
(work in progress), October 2010.
[RFC3931] Lau, J., Townsley, M., and I. Goyret, "Layer Two Tunneling
Protocol - Version 3 (L2TPv3)", RFC 3931, March 2005.
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Authors' Addresses
Len Ciavattone
AT&T Labs
200 Laurel Avenue South
Middletown, NJ 07748
USA
Phone: +1 732 420 1239
Fax:
Email: lencia@att.com
URI:
Ruediger Geib
Deutsche Telekom
Heinrich Hertz Str. 3-7
Darmstadt, 64295
Germany
Phone: +49 6151 58 12747
Email: Ruediger.Geib@telekom.de
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/
Matthias Wieser
University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt
Birkenweg 8 Department EIT
Darmstadt, 64295
Germany
Phone:
Email: matthias.wieser@stud.h-da.de
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