Benchmarking Methodology Working Group B. Balarajah
Internet-Draft C. Rossenhoevel
Intended status: Informational EANTC AG
Expires: September 6, 2018 March 5, 2018
Benchmarking Methodology for Network Security Device Performance
draft-balarajah-bmwg-ngfw-performance-02
Abstract
This document provides benchmarking terminology and methodology for
next-generation network security devices including next-generation
firewalls (NGFW), intrusion detection and prevention solutions (IDS/
IPS) and unified threat management (UTM) implementations. The
document aims to strongly improve the applicability, reproducibility
and transparency of benchmarks and to align the test methodology with
today's increasingly complex layer 7 application use cases. The main
areas covered in this document are test terminology, traffic profiles
and benchmarking methodology for NGFWs to start with.
Status of This Memo
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This Internet-Draft will expire on September 6, 2018.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2018 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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to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4. Test Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4.1. Testbed Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4.2. DUT/SUT Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.3. Test Equipment Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4.3.1. Client Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.3.2. Backend Server Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.3.3. Traffic Flow Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.3.4. Traffic Load Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5. Test Bed Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
6. Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6.1. Key Performance Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
7. Benchmarking Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
7.1. Throughput Performance With NetSecOPEN Traffic Mix . . . 16
7.1.1. Objective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
7.1.2. Test Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
7.1.3. Test Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
7.1.4. Test Procedures and expected Results . . . . . . . . 19
7.2. Concurrent TCP Connection Capacity With HTTP Traffic . . 20
7.2.1. Objective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
7.2.2. Test Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
7.2.3. Test Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
7.2.4. Test Procedures and expected Results . . . . . . . . 22
7.3. TCP/HTTP Connections Per Second . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
7.3.1. Objective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
7.4. HTTP Transactions Per Second . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
7.4.1. Objective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
7.5. HTTP Throughput . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
7.5.1. Objective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
7.6. HTTP Transaction Latency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
7.6.1. Objective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
7.7. Concurrent SSL/TLS Connection Capacity . . . . . . . . . 24
7.7.1. Objective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
7.8. SSL/TLS Handshake Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
7.8.1. Objective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
7.9. HTTPS Transaction Per Second . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
7.9.1. Objective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
7.10. HTTPS Throughput . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
7.10.1. Objective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
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7.11. HTTPS Transaction Latency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
7.11.1. Objective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
8. Formal Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
9. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
10. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
11. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
12. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Appendix A. An Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
1. Introduction
15 years have passed since IETF recommended test methodology and
terminology for firewalls initially (RFC 2647, RFC 3511). The
requirements for network security element performance and
effectiveness have increased tremendously since then. Security
function implementations have evolved to more advanced areas and have
diversified into intrusion detection and prevention, threat
management, analysis of encrypted traffic, etc. In an industry of
growing importance, well-defined and reproducible key performance
indicators (KPIs) are increasingly needed: They enable fair and
reasonable comparison of network security functions. All these
reasons have led to the creation of a new next-generation firewall
benchmarking document.
2. 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] .
3. Scope
This document provides testing terminology and testing methodology
next-generation firewalls and related security functions. It covers
two main areas: Performance benchmarks and security effectiveness
testing. The document focuses on advanced, realistic, and
reproducible testing methods. Additionally it describes test bed
environments, test tool requirements and test result formats.
4. Test Setup
Test setup defined in this document will be applicable to all of the
benchmarking test cases described in Section 7.
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4.1. Testbed Configuration
Testbed configuration MUST ensure that any performance implications
that are discovered during the benchmark testing aren't due to the
inherent physical network limitations such as number of physical
links and forwarding performance capabilities (throughput and
latency) of the network devise in the testbed. For this reason, this
document recommends to avoid external devices such as switch and
router in the testbed as possible.
In the typical deployment, the security devices (DUT/SUT) will not
have a large number of entries in MAC or ARP tables, which impact the
actual DUT/SUT performance due to MAC and ARP table lookup processes.
Therefore, depend on number of used IP address in client and server
side, it is recommended to connect Layer 3 device(s) between test
equipment and DUT/SUT as shown in Figure 1.
If the test equipment is capable to emulate layer 3 routing
functionality and there is no need for test equipment ports
aggregation, it is recommended to configure the test setup as shown
in Figure 2.
+-------------------+ +-----------+ +--------------------+
|Aggregation Switch/| | | | Aggregation Switch/|
| Router +------+ DUT/SUT +------+ Router |
| | | | | |
+----------+--------+ +-----------+ +--------+-----------+
| |
| |
+-----------+-----------+ +-----------+-----------+
| | | |
| +-------------------+ | | +-------------------+ |
| | Emulated Router(s)| | | | Emulated Router(s)| |
| | (Optional) | | | | (Optional) | |
| +-------------------+ | | +-------------------+ |
| +-------------------+ | | +-------------------+ |
| | Clients | | | | Servers | |
| +-------------------+ | | +-------------------+ |
| | | |
| Test Equipment | | Test Equipment |
+-----------------------+ +-----------------------+
Figure 1: Testbed Setup - Option 1
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+-----------------------+ +-----------------------+
| +-------------------+ | +-----------+ | +-------------------+ |
| | Emulated Router(s)| | | | | | Emulated Router(s)| |
| | (Optional) | +----- DUT/SUT +-----+ (Optional) | |
| +-------------------+ | | | | +-------------------+ |
| +-------------------+ | +-----------+ | +-------------------+ |
| | Clients | | | | Servers | |
| +-------------------+ | | +-------------------+ |
| | | |
| Test Equipment | | Test Equipment |
+-----------------------+ +-----------------------+
Figure 2: Testbed Setup - Option 2
4.2. DUT/SUT Configuration
An unique DUT/SUT configuration MUST be used for all of the
benchmarking tests described in Section 7. Since each DUT/SUT will
have their own unique configuration, users SHOULD configure their
device with the same parameters that would be used in the actual
deployment of the device or a typical deployment. Also it is
mandatory to enable all the security features on the DUT/SUT in order
to achieve maximum security coverage for a specific deployment
scenario.
This document attempts to define the recommended security features
which SHOULD be consistently enabled for all test cases. The table
below describes the recommended sets of feature list which SHOULD be
configured on the DUT/SUT. In order to improve repeatability, a
summary of the DUT configuration including description of all enabled
DUT/SUT features MUST be published with the benchmarking results.
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+----------------------------------------------------+
| Device |
+---------------------------------+--+----+---+------+
| | | | | | SSL |
| NGFW |NGIPS|AD| WAF|BPS|Broker|
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | |Included |Added to| Future test standards |
|DUT Features |Feature|in initial|future | to be developed |
| | |Scope |Scope | |
+------------------------------------------------+---+---+---+------+
|SSL Inspection| x | | x | | | | | |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
|IDS/IPS | x | x | | | | | | |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Web Filtering | x | | x | | | | | |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Antivirus | x | x | | | | | | |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Anti Spyware | x | x | | | | | | |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Anti Botnet | x | x | | | | | | |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
|DLP | x | | x | | | | | |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
|DDoS | x | | x | | | | | |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Certificate | x | | x | | | | | |
|Validation | | | | | | | | |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Logging and | x | x | | | | | | |
|Reporting | | | | | | | | |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Application | x | x | | | | | | |
|Identification| | | | | | | | |
+----------------------+----------+--------+-----+---+---+---+------+
Table 1: DUT/SUT Feature List
In addition, it is also recommended to configure a realistic number
of access policy rules on the DUT/SUT. This document determines the
number of access policy rules for three different class of DUT/SUT.
The classification of the DUT/SUT MAY be based on its maximum
supported throughput performance number. This document classifies
the DUT/SUT in three different categories; namely small, medium and
maximum.
The recommended throughput values for the following classes are;
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Small - supported throughput less than 5Gbit/s
Medium - supported throughput greater than 5Gbit/s and less than
10Gbit/s
Large - supported throughput greater than 10Gbit/s
The access rule defined in the table 2 MUST be configured from top to
bottom in correct order. The configured access policy rule MUST NOT
block the test traffic used for the benchmarking test scenario.
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+------------------------------------------------+------------------+
| | DUT/SUT |
| | Classification |
| | # Rules |
+-----------+-----------+-----------------+------------+------+-----+
| | Match | | | | | |
| Rules Type| Criteria| Description |Action|Small|Medium|Large|
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Application|Application|Any application |block | 10 | 20 | 50 |
|layer | |traffic NOT | | | | |
| | |included in the | | | | |
| | |test traffic | | | | |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Transport |Src IP and |Any src IP use in|block | 50 | 100 | 250 |
|layer |TCP/UDP |the test AND any | | | | |
| |Dst ports |dst ports NOT | | | | |
| | |used in the test | | | | |
| | |traffic | | | | |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
|IP layer |Src/Dst IP |Any src/dst IP |block | 50 | 100 | 250 |
| | |NOT used in the | | | | |
| | |test | | | | |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Application|Application|Applications |allow | 10 | 10 | 10 |
|layer | |included in the | | | | |
| | |test traffic | | | | |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Transport |Src IP and |Half of the src |allow | 1 | 1 | 1 |
|layer |TCP/UDP |IP used in the | | | | |
| |Dst ports |test AND any dst | | | | |
| | |ports used in the| | | | |
| | |test traffic. One| | | | |
| | |rule per subnet | | | | |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
|IP layer |Src IP |The rest of the |allow | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| | |src IP subnet | | | | |
| | |range used in the| | | | |
| | |test. One rule | | | | |
| | |per subnet | | | | |
+-----------+-----------------------------+------+-----+------+-----+
Table 2: DUT/SUT Access List
4.3. Test Equipment Configuration
In general, test equipment allows configuring parameters in different
protocol level. These parameters thereby influencing the traffic
flows which will be offered and impacting performance measurements.
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This document attempts to explicitly specify which test equipment
parameters SHOULD be configurable, any such parameter(s) MUST be
noted in the test report.
4.3.1. Client Configuration
This section specifies which parameters SHOULD be considerable while
configuring emulated clients using test equipment. Also this section
specifies the recommended values for certain parameters.
4.3.1.1. TCP Stack Attributes
The TCP stack SHOULD use a TCP Reno variant, which include congestion
avoidance, back off and windowing, retransmission and recovery on
every TCP connection between client and server endpoints. The
default IPv4 and IPv6 MSS segments size MUST be set to 1460 bytes and
1440 bytes and a TX and RX receive windows of 32768 bytes. Delayed
ACKs are permitted, but it SHOULD be limited to either a 200 msec
delay timeout or 3000 in bytes before a forced ACK. Up to 3 retries
SHOULD be allowed before a timeout event is declared. All traffic
MUST set the TCP PSH flag to high. The source port range SHOULD be
in the range of 1024 - 65535. Internal timeout SHOULD be dynamically
scalable per RFC 793.
4.3.1.2. Client IP Address Space
The sum of the client IP space SHOULD contain the following
attributes. The traffic blocks SHOULD consist of multiple unique,
continuous static address blocks. A default gateway is permitted.
The IPv4 ToS byte should be set to '00'.
The following equation can be used to determine the required total
number of client IP address.
Desired total number of client IP = Target throughput [Mbit/s] /
Throughput per IP address [Mbit/s]
(Idea 1) 6-7 Mbps per IP= 1,400-1,700 IPs per 10Gbit/s throughput
(Idea 2) 0.1-0.2 Mbps per IP = 50,000-100,000 IPs per 10Gbit/s
throughput
Based on deployment and usecase scenario, client IP addresses SHOULD
be distributed between IPv4 and IPv6 type. This document recommends
using the following ratio(s) between IPv4 and IPv6:
(Idea 1) 100 % IPv4, no IPv6
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(Idea 2) 80 % IPv4, 20 % IPv6
(Idea 3) 50 % IPv4, 50 % IPv6
(Idea 4) 0 % IPv4, 100 % IPv6
4.3.1.3. Emulated Web Browser Attributes
The emulated web browser contains attributes that will materially
affect how traffic is loaded. The objective is to emulate a modern,
typical browser attributes to improve realism of the result set.
For HTTP traffic emulation, the emulated browser must negotiate HTTP
1.1. HTTP persistency MAY be enabled depend on test scenario. The
browser CAN open multiple TCP connections per Server endpoint IP at
any time depending on how many sequential transactions are needed to
be processed. Within the TCP connection multiple transactions can be
processed if the emulated browser has available connections. The
browser MUST advertise a User-Agent header. Headers will be sent
uncompressed. The browser should enforce content length validation.
For encrypted traffic, the following attributes shall define the
negotiated encryption parameters. The tests must use TLSv1.2 or
higher with a record size of 16383, commonly used cipher suite and
key strength. Session reuse or ticket resumption may be used for
subsequent connections to the same Server endpoint IP. The client
endpoint must send TLS Extension SNI information when opening up a
security tunnel. Server certificate validation should be disabled.
Server certificate validation should be disabled. Cipher suite and
certificate size should be defined in the parameter session of
benchmarking tests.
4.3.2. Backend Server Configuration
This document attempts to specify which parameters should be
considerable while configuring emulated backend servers using test
equipment.
4.3.2.1. TCP Stack Attributes
The TCP stack SHOULD use a TCP Reno variant, which include congestion
avoidance, back off and windowing, retransmission and recovery on
every TCP connection between client and server endpoints. The
default IPv4 MSS segment size MUST be set to 1460 bytes and a TX and
RX receive windows of at least 32768 bytes. Delayed ACKs are
permitted but SHOULD be limited to either a 200 msec delay timeout or
3000 in bytes before a forced ACK. Up to 3 retries SHOULD be allowed
before a timeout event is declared. All traffic MUST set the TCP PSH
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flag to high. The source port range SHOULD be in the range of 1024 -
65535. Internal timeout should be dynamically scalable per RFC 793.
4.3.2.2. Server Endpoint IP Addressing
The server IP blocks should consist of unique, continuous static
address blocks with one IP per Server FQDN endpoint per test port.
The IPv4 ToS byte should be set to '00'. The source mac address of
the server endpoints shall be the same emulating routed behavior.
Each Server FQDN should have it's own unique IP address. The Server
IP addressing should be fixed to the same number of FQDN entries.
4.3.2.3. HTTP / HTTPS Server Pool Endpoint Attributes
The emulated server pool for HTTP should listen on TCP port 80 and
emulated HTTP version 1.1 with persistence. For HTTPS server, the
pool must have the same basic attributes of an HTTP server pool plus
attributes for SSL/TLS. The server must advertise a server type.
For HTTPS server, TLS 1.2 or higher must be used with a record size
of 16383 bytes and ticket resumption or Session ID reuse enabled.
The server must listen on port TCP 443. The server shall serve a
certificate to the client. It is required that the HTTPS server also
check Host SNI information with the Fully Qualified Domain Name
(FQDN). Client certificate validation should be disabled. Cipher
suite and certificate size should be defined in the parameter session
of benchmarking tests.
4.3.3. Traffic Flow Definition
The section describes the traffic pattern between the client and
server endpoints. At the beginning of the test, the server endpoint
initializes and will be in a ready to accept connection state
including initialization of the TCP stack as well as bound HTTP and
HTTPS servers. When a client endpoint is needed, it will initialize
and be given attributes such as the MAC and IP address. The behavior
of the client is to sweep though the given server IP space,
sequentially generating a recognizable service by the DUT. Thus, a
balanced, mesh between client endpoints and server endpoints will be
generated in a client port server port combination. Each client
endpoint performs the same actions as other endpoints, with the
difference being the source IP of the client endpoint and the target
server IP pool. The client shall use Fully Qualified Domain Names in
Host Headers and for TLS 1.2 Server Name Indication (SNI).
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4.3.3.1. Description of Intra-Client Behavior
Client endpoints are independent of other clients that are
concurrently executing. When a client endpoint initiate traffic,
this section will describe how the steps though different services.
Once initialized, the user should randomly hold (perform no
operation) for a few milliseconds to allow for better randomization
of start of client traffic. The client will then either open up a
new TCP connection or connect to a TCP persistence stack still open
to that specific server. At any point that the service profile may
require encryption, a TLS 1.2 encryption tunnel will form presenting
the URL request to the server. The server will then perform an SNI
name check with the proposed FQDN compared to the domain embedded in
the certificate. Only when correct, will the server process the
object. The initial object to the server may not have a fixed size;
its size is based on benchmarking tests described in Section 7.
Multiple additional sub-URLs (Objects on the service page) may be
requested simultaneously. This may or may not be to the same server
IP as the initial URL. Each sub-object will also use a conical FQDN
and URL path, as observed in the traffic mix used.
4.3.4. Traffic Load Profile
The loading of traffic will be described in this section. The
loading of an traffic load profile has five distinct phases: Init,
ramp up, sustain, ramp down/close, and collection.
Within the Init phase, test bed devices including the client and
server endpoints should negotiate layer 2-3 connectivity such as MAC
learning and ARP. Only after successful MAC learning or ARP
resolution shall the test iteration move to the next phase. No
measurements are made in this phase. The minimum recommended time
for init phase is 5 seconds. During this phase the emulated clients
SHOULD NOT initiate any sessions with the DUT/SUT, in contrast, the
emulated servers should be ready to accept requests from DUT/SUT or
from emulated clients.
In the ramp up phase, the test equipment should start to generate the
test traffic. It should use a set approximate number of unique
client IP addresses actively to generate traffic. The traffic should
ramp from zero to desired target objective. The target objective
will be defined for each benchmarking test. The duration for the
ramp up phase must be configured long enough, so that the test
equipment do not overwhelm DUT/SUT's supported performance metrics
namely; connection setup rate, concurrent connection and application
transaction. The recommended time duration for the ramp up phase is
180- 300 seconds. No measurements are made in this phase.
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In the sustain phase, the test equipment should keep to generate
traffic t constant target value for a constant number of active
client IPs. The recommended time duration for sustain phase is 600
seconds. This is the phase where measurements occur.
In the ramp down/close phase, no new connection is established and no
measurements are made. The recommend duration of this phase is
between 180 to 300 seconds.
The last phase is administrative and will be when the tester merges
and collates the report data.
5. Test Bed Considerations
This section recommends steps to control the test environment and
test equipment, specifically focusing on virtualized environments and
virtualized test equipment.
1. Ensure that any ancillary switching or routing functions between
the system under test and the test equipment do not limit the
performance of the traffic generator. This is specifically
important for virtualized components (vSwitches, vRouters).
2. Verify that the performance of the test equipment matches and
reasonably exceeds the expected maximum performance of the system
under test.
3. Assert that the test bed characteristics are stable during the
whole test session. A number of factors might influence
stability specifically for virtualized test beds, for example
additional work loads in a virtualized system, load balancing and
movement of virtual machines during the test, or simple issues
such as additional heat created by high workloads leading to an
emergency CPU performance reduction.
Test bed reference pre-tests help to ensure that the desired traffic
generator aspects such as maximum throughput and the network
performance metrics such as maximum latency and maximum packet loss
are met.
Once the desired maximum performance goals for the system under test
have been identified, a safety margin of 10 % SHOULD be added for
throughput and subtracted for maximum latency and maximum packet
loss.
Test bed preparation may be performed either by configuring the DUT
in the most trivial setup (fast forwarding) or without presence of
DUT.
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6. Reporting
This section describes how the final report should be formatted and
presented. The final test report may have two major sections;
Introduction and result sections. The following attributes should be
present in the introduction section of the test report.
1. The name of the NetSecOPEN traffic mix must be prominent.
2. The time and date of the execution of the test must be prominent.
3. Summary of testbed software and Hardware details
A. DUT Hardware/Virtual Configuration
+ This section should clearly identify the make and model of
the DUT
+ iThe port interfaces, including speed and link information
must be documented.
+ If the DUT is a virtual VNF, interface acceleration such
as DPDK and SR-IOV must be documented as well as cores
used, RAM used, and the pinning / resource sharing
configuration. The Hypervisor and version must be
documented.
+ Any additional hardware relevant to the DUT such as
controllers must be documented
B. DUT Software
+ The operating system name must be documented
+ The version must be documented
+ The specific configuration must be documented
C. DUT Enabled Features
+ Specific features, such as logging, NGFW, DPI must be
documented
+ iAttributes of those featured must be documented
+ Any additional relevant information about features must be
documented
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D. Test equipment hardware and software
+ Test equipment vendor name
+ Hardware details including model number, interface type
+ Test equipment firmware and test application software
version
4. Results Summary / Executive Summary
1. Results should resemble a pyramid in how it is reported, with
the introduction section documenting the summary of results
in a prominent, easy to read block.
2. In the result section of the test report, the following
attributes should be present for each test scenario.
a. KPIs must be documented separately for each test
scenario. The format of the KPI metrics should be
presented as described in Section 6.1.
b. The next level of detains should be graphs showing each
of these metrics over the duration (sustain phase) of the
test. This allows the user to see the measured
performance stability changes over time.
6.1. Key Performance Indicators
This section lists KPIs for overall benchmarking tests scenarios.
All KPIs MUST be measured in whole period of sustain phase as
described in Section 4.3.4. All KPIs MUST be measured from test
equipment's result output.
o TCP Concurrent Connection
This key performance indicator will measure the average concurrent
open TCP connections in the sustaining period.
o TCP Connection Setup Rate
This key performance indicator will measure the average
established TCP connections per second in the sustaining period.
For Session setup rate benchmarking test scenario, the KPI will
measure average established and terminated TCP connections per
second simultaneously.
o Application Transaction Rate
This key performance indicator will measure the average successful
transactions per seconds in the sustaining period.
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o TLS Handshake Rate
This key performance indicator will measure the average TLS 1.2 or
higher session formation rate within the sustaining period.
o Throughput
This key performance indicator will measure the average Layer 1
throughput within the sustaining period as well as average packets
per seconds within the same period. The value of throughput
should be presented in Gbps rounded to two places of precision
with a more specific kbps in parenthesis. Optionally, goodput may
also be logged as an average goodput rate measured over the same
period. Goodput result shall also be presented in the same format
as throughput.
o URL Response time / Time to Last Byte (TTLB)
This key performance indicator will measure the minimum, average
and maximum per URL response time in the sustaining period as well
as the average variance in the same period.
o Application Transaction Time
This key performance indicator will measure the minimum, average
and maximum the amount of time to receive all objects from the
server.
o Time to First Byte (TTFB)
This key performance indicator will measure minimum, average and
maximum the time to first byte. TTFB is the elapsed time between
sending the SYN packet from the client and receiving the first
byte of application date from the DUT/SUT. TTFB SHOULD be
expressed in millisecond.
o TCP Connect Time
This key performance indicator will measure minimum, average and
maximum TCP connect time. It is elapsed between the time the
client sends a SYN packet and the time it receives the SYN/ACK.
TCP connect time SHOULD be expressed in millisecond.
7. Benchmarking Tests
7.1. Throughput Performance With NetSecOPEN Traffic Mix
7.1.1. Objective
To determine the average throughput performance of the DUT/SUT when
using application traffic mix defined in Section 7.1.3.3.
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7.1.2. Test Setup
Test bed setup MUST be configured as defined in Section 4. Any test
scenario specific test bed configuration changes must be documented.
7.1.3. Test Parameters
In this section, test scenario specific parameters SHOULD be defined.
7.1.3.1. DUT/SUT Configuration Parameters
DUT/SUT parameters MUST conform to the requirements defined in
Section 4.2. Any configuration changes for this specific test
scenario MUST be documented.
7.1.3.2. Test Equipment Configuration Parameters
Test equipment configuration parameters MUST conform to the
requirements defined in Section 4.3. Following parameters MUST be
noted for this test scenario:
Client IP address range
Server IP address range
Traffic distribution ratio between IPv4 and IPv6
Traffic load objective or specification type (e.g. Throughput,
SimUsers and etc.)
Target throughput: It MAY be defined based on requirements.
Otherwise it represents aggregated line rate of interface(s) used
in the DUT/SUT
Initial throughput: Initial throughput MAY be up to 10% of the
"Target throughput"
7.1.3.3. Traffic Profile
Test scenario MUST be run with a single application traffic mix
profile. The name of the NetSecOpen traffic mix MUST be documented.
7.1.3.4. Test Results Acceptance Criteria
The following test Criteria is defined as test results acceptance
criteria
a. Number of failed Application transaction MUST be 0.01%.
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b. Number of Terminated TCP connection due to unexpected TCP RST
sent by DUT/SUT MUST be less than 0.01%
c. Maximum deviation (max. dev) of application transaction time /
TTLB (Time To Last Byte) MUST be less than X (The value for "X"
will be finalyzed and updated in future draft release)
The following equation MUST be used to calculate the deviation of
application transaction time or TTLB.
max. dev = max((avg_latency - min_latency),(max_latency -
avg_latency)) / (Initial latency)
Where, the initial latency is calculated using the following
equation. For this calculation, the latency values (min', avg'
and max') MUST be measured during test procedure step 1 as
defined in Section 7.1.4.1.
The variable latency represents application transaction time or
TTLB.
Initial latency:= min((avg' latency - min' latency) | (max'
latency - avg' latency))
d. Maximum value of TCP connect time must be less than Xms (The
value for "X" will be finalyzed and updated in future draft
release). The definition for TCP connect time is found in
Section 6.1.
e. Maximum value of Time to First Byte must be less than 2* TCP
connect time.
Test Acceptance criteria for this test scenario MUST be monitored
during the sustain phase of the traffic load profile only.
7.1.3.5. Measurement
Following KPI metrics MUST be reported for this test scenario.
Mandatory KPIs: average Throughput, maximum Concurrent TCP
connection, TTLB/application transaction time (minimum, average and
maximum) and average application transaction rate
Optional KPIs: average TCP connection setup rate, average TLS
handshake rate, TCP connect time and TTFB
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7.1.4. Test Procedures and expected Results
The test procedure is designed to measure the throughput performance
of the DUT/SUT at the sustaining period of traffic load profile. The
test procedure consists of three major steps.
7.1.4.1. Step 1: Test Initialization and Qualification
Verify the link status of the all connected physical interfaces. All
interfaces are expected to be "UP" status.
Configure traffic load profile of the test equipment to generate test
traffic at "initial throughput" rate as described in the parameters
section. The DUT/SUT SHOULD reach the "initial throughput" during
the sustain phase. Measure all KPI as defined in Section 7.1.3.5.
The measured KPIs during the sustain phase MUST meet acceptance
criteria "a" and "b" defined in Section 7.1.3.4.
If the KPI metrics do not meet the acceptance criteria, the test
procedure MUST NOT be continued to step 2.
7.1.4.2. Step 2: Test Run with Target Objective
Configure test equipment to generate traffic at "Target throughput"
rate defined in the parameter table. The test equipment SHOULD
follow the traffic load profile definition as described in
Section 4.3.4. The test equipment SHOULD start to measure and record
all specified KPIs. The frequency of KPI metrics measurement MUST be
less than 5 seconds. Continue the test until all traffic profile
phases are completed.
The DUT/SUT is expected to reach the desired target throughput during
the sustain phase. In addition, the measured KPIs must meet all
acceptance criteria. Follow the step 3, if the KPI metrics do not
meet the acceptance criteria.
7.1.4.3. Step 3: Test Iteration with Binary Search
Use binary search algorithm to configure the desired traffic load
profile for each test iteration. Binary search algorithmn can be
implemented using the parameter; Resolution =0.01* Target throughput
and Backoff= 50%.
Determine the maximum and average achievable throughput within the
acceptance criteria.
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7.2. Concurrent TCP Connection Capacity With HTTP Traffic
7.2.1. Objective
Determine the maximum number of concurrent TCP connection that DUT/
SUT sustains when using HTTP traffic.
7.2.2. Test Setup
Test bed setup SHOULD be configured as defined in Section 4. Any
specific test bed configuration changes such as number of interfaces
and interface type, etc. must be documented.
7.2.3. Test Parameters
In this section, test scenario specific parameters SHOULD be defined.
7.2.3.1. DUT/SUT Configuration Parameters
DUT/SUT parameters MUST conform to the requirements defined in
Section 4.2. Any configuration changes for this specific test
scenario MUST be documented.
7.2.3.2. Test Equipment Configuration Parameters
Test equipment configuration parameters MUST conform to the
requirements defined in Section 4.3. Following parameters MUST be
noted for this test scenario:
Client IP address range
Server IP address range
Traffic distribution ratio between IPv4 and IPv6
Traffic load objective or specification type (e.g Throughput,
SimUsers and etc.)
Target concurrent connection: It can be defined based on
requirements
Initial concurrent connection: 10% of "Target concurrent
connection"
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7.2.3.2.1. Client Configuration Parameters
The client must negotiate HTTP 1.1 with persistence and each client
can open multiple concurrent TCP connections per server endpoint IP.
Test scenario SHOULD be run with a single traffic profile with
following attributes:
HTTP 1.1 with GET command requesting 10 Kbyte objects with random
MIME type.
The test equipment SHOULD perform HTTP transactions within each TCP
connection subsequently. The frequency of transactions MUST be
defined to achieve X% of total throughput that DUT can support. The
suggested value of X is 25. It will be finalyzed and updated in the
next draft version.
During the sustain state of concurrent connection and traffic load ,
a minimal % of TCP connection SHOULD be closed and re-opened.
7.2.3.3. Test Results Acceptance Criteria
The following test Criteria is defined as test results acceptance
criteria
a. Number of failed Application transaction MUST be less than 0.01%
of attempt transaction.
b. Number of Terminated TCP connection due to unexpected TCP RST
sent by DUT/SUT MUST be less than 0.01% of total initiated TCP
sessions.
c. During the sustain phase, traffic should be forwarded constantly
at the rate defined in the parameter Section 7.2.3.
d. Maximum deviation (max. dev) of application transaction time /
TTLB (Time To Last Byte) MUST be less than Xms (The value for "X"
will be finalyzed and updated in future draft release).
The following equation MUST be used to calculate the deviation of
application transaction time or TTLB.
max. dev = max((avg_latency - min_latency),(max_latency -
avg_latency)) / (Initial latency)
Where, the initial latency is calculated using the following
equation. For this calculation, the latency values (min', avg'
and max') MUST be measured during test procedure step 1 as
defined in Section 7.1.4.1.
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The variable latency represents application transaction time or
TTLB.
Initial latency:= min((avg' latency - min' latency) | (max'
latency - avg' latency))
e. Maximum value of TCP connect time must be less than Xms (The
value for "X" will be finalyzed and updated in future draft
release). The definition for TCP connect time is found in
Section 6.1.
f. Maximum value of Time to First Byte must be less than 2* TCP
connect time.
Test Acceptance criteria for this test scenario MUST be monitored
during the sustain phase of the traffic load profile only.
7.2.3.4. Measurement
Following KPI metrics MUST be reported for this test scenario;
average Throughput, max. Min. Avg. Concurrent TCP connection, TTLB/
application transaction time (minimum, average and maximum) and
average application transaction rate.
7.2.4. Test Procedures and expected Results
The test procedure is designed to measure the concurrent TCP
connection capacity of the DUT/SUT at the sustaining period of
traffic load profile. The test procedure consists of three major
steps. This test procedure MAY be repeated multiple times with
different IPv4 and IPv6 traffic distribution.
7.2.4.1. Step 1: Test Initialization and Qualification
Verify the link status of the all connected physical interfaces. All
interfaces are expected to be "UP" status.
Configure traffic load profile of the test equipment to establish
"initial concurrent connection" as defined in the parameters section.
The traffic load profile should be defined as described in
Section 4.3.4.
The DUT/SUT SHOULD reach the "initial concurrent connection" during
the sustain phase. The measured KPIs during the sustain phase MUST
meet the acceptance criteria "a" and "b" defined in Section 7.2.3.3
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If the KPI metrics do not meet the acceptance criteria, the test
procedure MUST NOT be continued to "Step 2".
7.2.4.2. Step 2: Test Run with Target Objective
Configure test equipment to establish "Target concurrent connection"
defined in the parameters table. The test equipment SHOULD follow
the traffic load profile definition as described in Section 4.3.4.
During the ramp up and sustain phase, the other KPIs such as
throughput, TCP connection rate and application transaction MUST NOT
reach to the maximum value that the DUT/SUT can support. Throughput,
TCP connection rate and application transaction should not be reached
more than X% of maximum value that DUT can support. The suggested
value of X is 25. It will be finalyzed and updated in the next draft
version.
The test equipment SHOULD start to measure and record all specified
KPIs. The frequency of measurement MUST be less than 5 seconds.
Continue the test until all traffic profile phases are completed.
The DUT/SUT is expected to reach the desired target concurrent
connection at the sustain phase. In addition, the measured KPIs must
meet all acceptance criteria.
Follow the step 3, if the KPI metrics do not meet the acceptance
criteria.
7.2.4.3. Step 3: Test Iteration with Binary Search
Use binary search algorithm to configure the desired traffic load
profile for each test iteration. Binary search algorithmn can be
implemented using the parameter; Resolution =0.01* "Target concurrent
connection" and Backoff= 50%.
Determine the maximum and average achievable throughput within the
acceptance criteria.
7.3. TCP/HTTP Connections Per Second
7.3.1. Objective
Using HTTP traffic, determine the maximum and average value of TCP
session establishment rate supported by the DUT/SUT.
Test parameters and test test procedures will be added in the future
release.
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7.4. HTTP Transactions Per Second
7.4.1. Objective
Determine maximum and average HTTP transacton rate supported by the
DUT/SUT.
Test parameters and test test procedures will be added in the future
release.
7.5. HTTP Throughput
7.5.1. Objective
Determine the average throughput performance of the DUT/SUT when
using HTTP traffic.
Test parameters and test test procedures will be added in the future
release.
7.6. HTTP Transaction Latency
7.6.1. Objective
Determine the minimum, average and maximum values of HTTP transaction
latency at 80% throughput rate measured in "HTTP Throughput" test
scenario.
Test parameters and test test procedures will be added in the future
release.
7.7. Concurrent SSL/TLS Connection Capacity
7.7.1. Objective
Usin encrypted traffic (HTTPS), determine the maximum number of
concurrent TCP connection that DUT/SUT sustains.
Test parameters and test test procedures will be added in the future
release.
7.8. SSL/TLS Handshake Rate
7.8.1. Objective
Determine the maximum and average SSL/TLS handshake rate supported by
the DUT/SUT.
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Test parameters and test test procedures will be added in the future
release.
7.9. HTTPS Transaction Per Second
7.9.1. Objective
Determine maximum and average HTTPS transacton rate supported by the
DUT/SUT.
Test parameters and test test procedures will be added in the future
release.
7.10. HTTPS Throughput
7.10.1. Objective
Determine the average throughput performance of the DUT/SUT when
using HTTPS traffic.
Test parameters and test test procedures will be added in the future
release.
7.11. HTTPS Transaction Latency
7.11.1. Objective
Determine the minimum, average and maximum values of HTTPS
transaction latency at 80% throughput rate measured in "HTTPS
Throughput" test scenario.
Test parameters and test test procedures will be added in the future
release.
8. Formal Syntax
9. IANA Considerations
This document makes no request of IANA.
Note to RFC Editor: this section may be removed on publication as an
RFC.
10. Security Considerations
Security consideration will be added in the future release.
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11. Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements will be added in the future release.
12. Normative References
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.
Appendix A. An Appendix
Details about NetSecOPEN traffic mix will be added in next draft
release.
Authors' Addresses
Balamuhunthan Balarajah
EANTC AG
Salzufer 14
Berlin 10587
Germany
Email: balarajah@eantc.de
Carsten Rossenhoevel
EANTC AG
Salzufer 14
Berlin 10587
Germany
Email: cross@eantc.de
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