Internet Engineering Task Force                              M. Hamilton
Internet-Draft                                     BreakingPoint Systems
Intended status: Informational                                  S. Banks
Expires: September 9, 2010                                 Cisco Systems
                                                           March 8, 2010


       Benchmarking Methodology for Content-Aware Network Devices
                  draft-hamilton-bmwg-ca-bench-meth-03

Abstract

   The purpose of this document is to define a series of test scenarios
   which may be used to generate statistics that should help to better
   understand the performance of network devices under conditions that
   device may see in a deployment scenario.  Additionally, this document
   provides suggestions on which statistics may be the most useful for
   predicting network device performance in actual deployment scenarios.

Status of this Memo

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

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups.  Note that
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   Drafts.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on September 9, 2010.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2010 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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   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
     1.1.  Requirements Language  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   2.  Scope  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   3.  Test Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
     3.1.  Test Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
     3.2.  Clients and Servers  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
     3.3.  Traffic Generation Requirements  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
     3.4.  Multiple Client/Server Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
     3.5.  Network Address Translation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
     3.6.  TCP Stack Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
     3.7.  Other Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
   4.  Benchmarking Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
     4.1.  Maximum Application Connection Establishment Rate  . . . .  8
       4.1.1.  Objective  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
       4.1.2.  Setup Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
         4.1.2.1.  Transport-Layer Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
         4.1.2.2.  Application-Layer Parameters . . . . . . . . . . .  9
       4.1.3.  Procedure  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
       4.1.4.  Measurement  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
         4.1.4.1.  Maximum Application Connection Establishment
                   Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
         4.1.4.2.  Application Connection Setup Time  . . . . . . . .  9
         4.1.4.3.  Application Connection Response Time . . . . . . . 10
         4.1.4.4.  Application Connection Time To Close . . . . . . . 10
         4.1.4.5.  Packet Loss  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
         4.1.4.6.  Application Latency  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     4.2.  Application Throughput . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
       4.2.1.  Objective  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
       4.2.2.  Setup Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
         4.2.2.1.  Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
       4.2.3.  Procedure  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
       4.2.4.  Measurement  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
         4.2.4.1.  Maximum Throughput . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
         4.2.4.2.  Packet Loss  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
         4.2.4.3.  Application Connection Setup Time  . . . . . . . . 11
         4.2.4.4.  Application Connection Response Time . . . . . . . 11



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         4.2.4.5.  Application Connection Time To Close . . . . . . . 11
         4.2.4.6.  Application Latency  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
     4.3.  Denial of Service Attack Handling  . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
       4.3.1.  Objective  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
       4.3.2.  Setup Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
       4.3.3.  Procedure  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
       4.3.4.  Measurement  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
         4.3.4.1.  False Positives  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
         4.3.4.2.  False Negatives  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
     4.4.  Malicious Traffic Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
       4.4.1.  Objective  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
       4.4.2.  Setup Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
       4.4.3.  Procedure  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
       4.4.4.  Measurement  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
         4.4.4.1.  False Positives  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
         4.4.4.2.  False Negatives  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
     4.5.  Malformed Traffic Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
       4.5.1.  Objective  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
       4.5.2.  Setup Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
       4.5.3.  Procedure  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
       4.5.4.  Measurement  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
     4.6.  Concurrency Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
       4.6.1.  Objective  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
       4.6.2.  Setup Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
       4.6.3.  Procedure  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
       4.6.4.  Measurement  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
   5.  IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
   6.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
   7.  Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
   8.  References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
     8.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
     8.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
   Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17


















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1.  Introduction

   The purpose of this Internet Draft is to define and provide a set of
   benchmarks useful for evaluating content-aware network devices.  As
   processing resources have become faster and cheaper, network devices
   now utilize information far deeper inside the network packet than
   ever before.  No longer are devices looking simply at TCP/IP header
   information and bits of application headers; devices are now decoding
   application layer protocols and inspecting them for conformance to a
   given rule set, anomalies and even security signatures.  These
   devices have commonly become known as content-aware.

   Many of the terms used throughout this draft have previously been
   defined in "Benchmarking Terminology for Firewall Performance" RFC
   2647 [1].  This document SHOULD be consulted prior to using this
   document.  The Benchmarking Methodology Working Group (BMWG) has
   previously defined methodologies for network interconnect devices
   with RFC 2544 [2] and firewall performance with RFC 3511 [3].

1.1.  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 [4].


2.  Scope

   Content-aware devices take many forms, shapes and architectures.
   These devices are advanced network interconnect devices that inspect
   deep into the application payload of network data packets to do
   classification.  They may be as simple as a firewall that uses
   application data inspection for rule set enforcement, or they may
   have advanced functionality such as doing protocol decoding and
   validation, anti-virus, anti-spam and even application exploit
   filtering.

   It shall be explicitly stated that this methodology does not imply
   the use of traffic captured from live networks and replayed.

   This document is strictly focused on examining performance and
   robustness across a focused set of metrics that may be used to to
   more accurately predict device performance if deployed in live
   networks.  These metrics will be implementation independent.

   It should also be noted that the purpose of this document is not to
   define functional testing of the potential features in the Device/
   System Under Test (DUT/SUT)[1] nor specify the configurations that



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   should be tested.  Various definitions of proper operation and
   configuration may be appropriate for different deployments.  While
   the definition of these parameters are outside the scope of this
   document, the specific configuration of both the DUT and tester
   SHOULD be published with the test results for repeatability and
   comparison purposes.

   While a list of devices that fall under this category will quickly
   become obsolete, an initial list of devices that would be well served
   by utilizing this type of methodology should prove useful.  Devices
   such as firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention devices,
   application delivery controllers, deep packet inspection devices, and
   unified threat management systems generally fall into the content-
   aware category.


3.  Test Setup

   This document will be applicable to most test configurations and will
   not be confined to a discussion on specific test configurations.
   Since each DUT/SUT will have their own unique configuration, users
   MUST configure their device with the same parameters that would be
   used in the actual deployment of the device.  The DUT configuration
   MUST be published with the final benchmarking results.  Traffic
   generation patterns SHOULD be random but MUST be repeatable between
   test runs and test beds.

   The lines between network boundaries are rapidly blurring.  Every
   port on a device could be content-aware when using a fully meshed
   network topology.  Organizations deploying content-aware devices are
   doing so throughout their network infrastructure.  These devices
   inspect deep into the application flow to perform quality of service
   monitoring, filtering, metering, threat mitigation and more.

   Figure 1 illustrates a network topology that is fully meshed.
















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                         +---+      +---+      +---+
                         |C/S|      |C/S|      |C/S|
                         +---+      +---+      +---+
                             \        |       /
                              \ +----------+ /
                               \|          |/
                       +---+____|   DUT/   |____+---+
                       |C/S|    |   SUT    |    |C/S|
                       +---+   /|          |\   +---+
                              / +----------+ \
                             /        |       \
                         +---+      +---+     +---+
                         |C/S|      |C/S|     |C/S|
                         +---+      +---+     +---+

                            Fully Meshed Device

                       Figure 1: Fully Meshed Device

3.1.  Test Considerations

3.2.  Clients and Servers

   Content-aware device testing SHOULD involve multiple clients and
   multiple servers.  As with RFC 3511 [3], this methodology will use
   the terms virtual clients/servers throughout.  Similarly defined in
   RFC 3511 [3], a data source may emulate multiple clients and/or
   servers within the context of the same test scenario.  The test
   report MUST indicate the number of virtual clients/servers used
   during the test.  In Appendix C of RFC 2544 [2], the range of IP
   addresses assigned to the BMWG by the IANA are listed.  This address
   range SHOULD be adhered to in accordance with RFC 2544 [2].
   Additionally, section 5.2 of RFC 5180 [5] SHOULD be consulted for the
   appropriate address ranges when testing IPv6-enabled configurations.

3.3.  Traffic Generation Requirements

   The explicit purposes of content-aware devices vary widely, but most
   of these devices use information deeper inside the application flow
   to make decisions and classify traffic.  Because of this, users MUST
   utilize traffic at the application layer for determining benchmarking
   performance.  This traffic is defined as synthetic traffic generated
   and terminated with a test tool that appears identical to traffic
   which would be generated by an implementation of the specified
   application.  This traffic would be able to communicate with an
   actual client or server if that traffic were directed to it.  Traffic
   that has been captured off a live network and simply replayed MUST
   NOT be used.



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   Due to the dynamic nature of the environment in which these devices
   are being deployed, this document will not explicitly state the
   application protocols or versions to be used for this methodology.
   While this is left to the discretion of the end user, there are
   several guidelines that SHOULD be used when determining the breadth
   and depth of application protocols to be used:

   o  The application traffic MUST be repeatable between test runs.

   o  The application traffic MUST be repeatable across test beds.

   o  The traffic generation pattern SHOULD contain all protocols that
      may be present in the final production deployment.

   o  The percentage of each protocol SHOULD approximate the percentage
      seen in the final production deployment.  This percentage SHOULD
      be specified as a percentage of total bandwidth or as a percentage
      of application flows.

   o  The application traffic SHOULD be unique traffic flows with
      randomized content conforming to the specific application
      specified.

   An example traffic profile for a non-existent network that meets the
   previously specified criteria follows:

   o  40% BitTorrent Peer To Peer File Transfers with a range of file
      transfers from 500 kB to 10 MB.

   o  30% POP3 email download traffic with a range of email sizes from 1
      kB to 1 MB.

   o  20% SMTP transactions with a range of email sizes from 1 kB to 1
      MB.

   o  10% Jabber Instant Messaging (XMPP) traffic with chat message
      sizes from 128 B to 1 kB.

3.4.  Multiple Client/Server Testing

   In actual network deployments, connections are being established
   between multiple clients and multiple servers simultaneously.  RFC
   3511 [3] specifies that connections must be initiated in a round-
   robin fashion, but in order to better understand device performance,
   this method SHOULD NOT be used.  Device vendors have been known to
   optimize the operation of their devices for these easily defined
   patterns.  The connection sequence ordering scenarios a device will
   see on a network will likely be much less deterministic.  Thus, users



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   SHOULD setup the test equipment to issue requests at random to the
   virtual servers rather than in a predictable round-robin fashion.
   This method will help to appropriately reflect network deployment
   behavior in the test setup.

3.5.  Network Address Translation

   Many content-aware devices are capable of performing Network Address
   Translation (NAT)[1].  If the final deployment of the DUT will have
   this functionality enabled, then the DUT MUST also have it enabled
   during the execution of this methodology.  It MAY be beneficial to
   perform the test series in both modes in order to determine the
   performance differential when using NAT.  The test report MUST
   indicate whether NAT was enabled during the testing process.

3.6.  TCP Stack Considerations

   As with RFC 3511 [3], TCP options SHOULD remain constant across all
   devices under test in order to ensure truly comparable results.  This
   document does not attempt to specify which TCP options should be
   used, but all devices tested SHOULD be subject to the same
   configuration options.

3.7.  Other Considerations

   Various content-aware devices will have widely varying feature sets.
   In the interest of representative test results, the DUT features that
   will likely be enabled in the final deployment SHOULD be used.  This
   methodology is not intended to advise on which features should be
   enabled, but to suggest using actual deployment configurations.


4.  Benchmarking Tests

4.1.  Maximum Application Connection Establishment Rate

4.1.1.  Objective

   To determine the maximum rate through which a device is able to
   establish application-specific sessions as defined by RFC 2647 [1].

4.1.2.  Setup Parameters

   The following parameters MUST be defined for all tests:







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4.1.2.1.  Transport-Layer Parameters

   o  Aging Time: The time, expressed in seconds that the DUT will keep
      a connection in its state table after receiving a TCP FIN or RST
      packet.

   o  Maximum Segment Size: The size in bytes of the largest segment
      which may be sent over a TCP connection.

4.1.2.2.  Application-Layer Parameters

   o  Protocol List: A listing of the application protocols present in a
      given test run.

   o  Protocol Mix: A listing of the percentage of total throughput
      and/or total sessions per second absorbed by each protocol.

4.1.3.  Procedure

   The test SHOULD generate application network traffic that meets the
   conditions of Section 3.3.  The traffic pattern SHOULD begin with an
   application session establishment rate of 10% of expected maximum.
   The test SHOULD be configured to increase the attempt rate in units
   of 10 up through 110% of expected maximum.  The duration of each
   loading phase SHOULD be at least 30 seconds.  This test MAY be
   repeated, each subsequent iteration beginning at 5% of expected
   maximum and increasing session establishment rate to 10% more than
   the maximum observed from the previous test run.

   This procedure MAY be repeated any number of times with the results
   being averaged together.

4.1.4.  Measurement

   The following metrics MAY be determined from this test, and SHOULD be
   observed for each application protocol within the traffic mix:

4.1.4.1.  Maximum Application Connection Establishment Rate

   The test tool SHOULD report the maximum rate at which application
   connections were established, as defined by RFC 2647 [1], Section
   3.7.  This rate SHOULD be reported individually for each application
   protocol present within the traffic mix.

4.1.4.2.  Application Connection Setup Time

   The test tool SHOULD report the minimum, maximum and average
   application setup time, as defined by RFC 2647 [1], Section 3.9.



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   This rate SHOULD be reported individually for each application
   protocol present within the traffic mix.

4.1.4.3.  Application Connection Response Time

   The test tool SHOULD report the minimum, maximum, and average
   application session response times.  This metric is defined as the
   time between when the first SYN was sent and the arrival of the
   corresponding SYN-ACK.  This metric does not apply for non-connection
   oriented protocols.

4.1.4.4.  Application Connection Time To Close

   The test tool SHOULD report the minimum, maximum, and average
   application session time to close, as defined by RFC 2647 [1],
   Section 3.13.  This rate SHOULD be reported individually for each
   application protocol present within the traffic mix.

4.1.4.5.  Packet Loss

   The test tool SHOULD report the number of network packets lost or
   dropped from source to destination.

4.1.4.6.  Application Latency

   The test tool SHOULD report the minimum, maximum and average amount
   of time an application packet takes to traverse the DUT, as defined
   by RFC 1242 [6], Section 3.13.  This rate SHOULD be reported
   individually for each application protocol present within the traffic
   mix.

4.2.  Application Throughput

4.2.1.  Objective

   To determine the maximum rate through which a device is able to
   forward bits when using stateful applications.

4.2.2.  Setup Parameters

   The following parameters MUST be defined and reported for all tests:

4.2.2.1.  Parameters

   The same transport and application parameters as described in
   Section 4.1.2 MUST be used.





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4.2.3.  Procedure

   This test will attempt to send application data through the device at
   a session rate of 30% of the maximum established as observed in
   Section 4.1.  This procedure MAY be repeated with the results from
   each iteration averaged together.

4.2.4.  Measurement

   The following metrics MAY be determined from this test, and SHOULD be
   observed for each application protocol within the traffic mix:

4.2.4.1.  Maximum Throughput

   The test tool SHOULD report the minimum, maximum and average
   application throughput.

4.2.4.2.  Packet Loss

   The test tool SHOULD report the number of network packets lost or
   dropped from source to destination.

4.2.4.3.  Application Connection Setup Time

   The test tool SHOULD report the minimum, maximum and average
   application setup time, as defined by RFC 2647 [1], Section 3.9.
   This rate SHOULD be reported individually for each application
   protocol present within the traffic mix.

4.2.4.4.  Application Connection Response Time

   The test tool SHOULD report the minimum, maximum, and average
   application session response times.  This metric is defined as the
   time between when the first SYN was sent and the arrival of the
   corresponding SYN-ACK.  This metric does not apply for non-connection
   oriented protocols.

4.2.4.5.  Application Connection Time To Close

   The test tool SHOULD report the minimum, maximum, and average
   application session time to close, as defined by RFC 2647 [1],
   Section 3.13.  This rate SHOULD be reported individually for each
   application protocol present within the traffic mix.

4.2.4.6.  Application Latency

   The test tool SHOULD report the minimum, maximum and average amount
   of time an application packet takes to traverse the DUT, as defined



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   by RFC 1242 [6], Section 3.13.  This rate SHOULD be reported
   individually for each application protocol present within the traffic
   mix.

4.3.  Denial of Service Attack Handling

4.3.1.  Objective

   To determine the effects of a TCP SYN Flood Denial-of-Service (DoS)
   attack on application session performance.

4.3.2.  Setup Parameters

   The same parameters must be used for Transport-Layer and Application
   Layer Parameters previously specified in Section 4.1.2 and
   Section 4.2.2, respectively.  Additionally, the following parameters
   MUST be defined and reported for all tests:

   o  SYN attack rate: Rate, expressed in packets per second at which
      the DUT will receive TCP SYN packets.[3]

4.3.3.  Procedure

   This test will utilize the procedures specified previously in
   Section 4.1.3 and Section 4.2.3.  When performing the procedures
   listed previously, during the steady-state time, the test should
   generate TCP SYN packets at the rate defined by the SYN attack rate
   parameter described above.  The test tool MUST NOT respond to the TCP
   SYN packets with TCP SYN/ACK packets.  This procedure SHOULD be
   performed with the TCP SYN packets originating from a single host, as
   well as from multiple hosts.

   Both procedures SHOULD be run with and without the feature enabled on
   the DUT to determine the affects of the DoS attack on the baseline
   metrics previously derived.  Additionally, the test MAY be configured
   to generate other denial of service attacks, including distributed.
   This document does not attempt to specify which additional scenarios
   should be tested.

4.3.4.  Measurement

   For each protocol present in the traffic mix, in addition to the
   metrics specified by Section 4.1.4 and Section 4.2.4, the following
   metrics MAY be determined from the tester if appropriate:







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4.3.4.1.  False Positives

   If the DUT performs denial of service mitigation, record this
   measurement of the number of application sessions that were failed
   due because of false detection as denial of service attack.

4.3.4.2.  False Negatives

   If the DUT performs denial of service mitigation, record the number
   of TCP SYN packets as part of the DoS stream that were allowed to
   pass through the DUT.

4.4.  Malicious Traffic Handling

4.4.1.  Objective

   To determine the effects on performance that malicious traffic may
   have on the DUT.  While this test is not designed to characterize
   accuracy of detection or classification, it MAY be useful to record
   these measurements as specified below.

4.4.2.  Setup Parameters

   The same parameters must be used for Transport-Layer and Application
   Layer Parameters previously specified in Section 4.1.2 and
   Section 4.2.2, respectively.  Additionally, the following parameters
   MUST be defined and reported for all tests:

   o  Attack List: A listing of the malicious traffic that was generated
      by the test.

4.4.3.  Procedure

   This test will utilize the procedures specified previously in
   Section 4.1.3 and Section 4.2.3.  When performing the procedures
   listed previously, during the steady-state time, the tester should
   generate malicious traffic representative of the final network
   deployment.  The mix of attacks MAY include software vulnerability
   exploits, network worms, back-door access attempts, network probes
   and other malicious traffic.

   If a DUT may be run with and without the attack mitigation, both
   procedures SHOULD be run with and without the feature enabled on the
   DUT to determine the affects of the malicious traffic on the baseline
   metrics previously derived.  If a DUT does not have active attack
   mitigation capabilities, this procedure SHOULD be run regardless.
   Certain malicious traffic could affect device performance even if the
   DUT does not actively inspect packet data for malicious traffic.



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4.4.4.  Measurement

   For each protocol present in the traffic mix, in addition to the
   metrics specified by Section 4.1.4 and Section 4.2.4, the following
   metrics MAY be determined from this test:

4.4.4.1.  False Positives

   If the DUT provides attack mitigation capabilities, the number of
   application transactions that were failed due to false detection as
   malicious traffic MAY be recorded.  This measurement has little
   meaning for DUTs that do not actively block malicious traffic.

4.4.4.2.  False Negatives

   If the DUT provides attack mitigation capabilities, number of
   malicious attacks passed through the DUT MAY be recorded.  This
   measurement has little meaning for DUTs that do not actively block
   malicious traffic.

4.5.  Malformed Traffic Handling

4.5.1.  Objective

   To determine the effects on performance and stability that malformed
   traffic may have on the DUT.

4.5.2.  Setup Parameters

   The same parameters must be used for Transport-Layer and Application
   Layer Parameters previously specified in Section 4.1.2 and
   Section 4.2.2.

4.5.3.  Procedure

   This test will utilize the procedures specified previously in
   Section 4.1.3 and Section 4.2.3.  When performing the procedures
   listed previously, during the steady-state time, the tester should
   generate malformed traffic at all protocol layers.  This is commonly
   known as fuzzed traffic.  Fuzzing techniques generally generally
   modify portions of packets, including checksum errors, invalid
   protocol options, and improper protocol conformance.  This test
   SHOULD be run on a DUT regardless of whether it has built-in
   mitigation capabilities.







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4.5.4.  Measurement

   For each protocol present in the traffic mix, the metrics specified
   by Section 4.1.4 and Section 4.2.4 MAY be determined.  This data may
   be used to ascertain the effects of fuzzed traffic on the DUT.

4.6.  Concurrency Test

4.6.1.  Objective

   To determine the effects of running all test combinations
   concurrently.

4.6.2.  Setup Parameters

   The same parameters must be used for Transport-Layer and Application
   Layer Parameters previously specified in Section 4.1.2,
   Section 4.3.2, Section 4.4.2.

4.6.3.  Procedure

   This test will utilize the procedures specified previously in
   Section 4.1.3, Section 4.3.3, and Section 4.4.3.  The test setup and
   procedures should be all combined to run concurrently.

   The test procedure SHOULD be run with and without the feature enabled
   on the DUT to determine the affects of concurrency and configuration
   on the baseline metrics previously derived.

4.6.4.  Measurement

   For each protocol present in the traffic mix, the metrics specified
   by Section 4.1.4, Section 4.3.4, and Section 4.3.4 SHOULD be
   determined from the tester.


5.  IANA Considerations

   This memo includes no request to IANA.

   All drafts are required to have an IANA considerations section (see
   the update of RFC 2434 [7] for a guide).  If the draft does not
   require IANA to do anything, the section contains an explicit
   statement that this is the case (as above).  If there are no
   requirements for IANA, the section will be removed during conversion
   into an RFC by the RFC Editor.





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6.  Security Considerations

   The purpose of this document is to provide a methodology for
   benchmarking content-aware network interconnect devices.  Documents
   of this type do not directly affect the security of Internet or
   corporate networks as long as benchmarking is not performed on
   devices or systems connected to production networks.  Security
   threats and how to counter these in SIP and the media layer is
   discussed in RFC3261, RFC3550, and RFC3711 and various other drafts.
   This document attempts to formalize a set of common methodology for
   benchmarking performance of failover mechanisms in a lab environment.


7.  Acknowledgements

   The author would like to thank Dustin Trammell and Dennis Cox of
   BreakingPoint Systems for editorial and content input.  Additionally,
   comments from Al Morton (BMWG Chair, AT&T), Aamer Akhter (Cisco) and
   Brett Wolmarans (Spirent Communications) for insightful comments at
   IETF-74.


8.  References

8.1.  Normative References

   [1]  Newman, D., "Benchmarking Terminology for Firewall Performance",
        RFC 2647, August 1999.

   [2]  Bradner, S. and J. McQuaid, "Benchmarking Methodology for
        Network Interconnect Devices", RFC 2544, March 1999.

   [3]  Hickman, B., Newman, D., Tadjudin, S., and T. Martin,
        "Benchmarking Methodology for Firewall Performance", RFC 3511,
        April 2003.

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

   [5]  Popoviciu, C., Hamza, A., Van de Velde, G., and D. Dugatkin,
        "IPv6 Benchmarking Methodology for Network Interconnect
        Devices", RFC 5180, May 2008.

   [6]  Bradner, S., "Benchmarking terminology for network
        interconnection devices", RFC 1242, July 1991.






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8.2.  Informative References

   [7]  Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, "Guidelines for Writing an IANA
        Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26, RFC 5226, May 2008.


Authors' Addresses

   Mike Hamilton
   BreakingPoint Systems
   Austin, TX  78717
   US

   Phone: +1 512 636 2303
   Email: mhamilton@breakingpoint.com


   Sarah Banks
   Cisco Systems
   San Jose, CA  95134
   US

   Email: sabanks@cisco.com




























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