Methodology for IP Multicast Benchmarking
RFC 3918

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Network Working Group                                           D. Stopp
Request for Comments: 3918                                          Ixia
Category: Informational                                       B. Hickman
                                                  Spirent Communications
                                                            October 2004

               Methodology for IP Multicast Benchmarking

Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
   not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
   memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2004).

Abstract

   The purpose of this document is to describe methodology specific to
   the benchmarking of multicast IP forwarding devices.  It builds upon
   the tenets set forth in RFC 2544, RFC 2432 and other IETF
   Benchmarking Methodology Working Group (BMWG) efforts.  This document
   seeks to extend these efforts to the multicast paradigm.

   The BMWG produces two major classes of documents: Benchmarking
   Terminology documents and Benchmarking Methodology documents.  The
   Terminology documents present the benchmarks and other related terms.
   The Methodology documents define the procedures required to collect
   the benchmarks cited in the corresponding Terminology documents.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  2
   2.  Key Words to Reflect Requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   3.  Test Set Up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
       3.1.  Test Considerations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
             3.1.1. IGMP Support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
             3.1.2. Group Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
             3.1.3. Frame Sizes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
             3.1.4. TTL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
             3.1.5. Trial Duration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
   4.  Forwarding and Throughput. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
       4.1.  Mixed Class Throughput . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
       4.2.  Scaled Group Forwarding Matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
       4.3.  Aggregated Multicast Throughput. . . . . . . . . . . . .  9

Stopp & Hickman              Informational                      [Page 1]
RFC 3918       Methodology for IP Multicast Benchmarking   October 2004

       4.4.  Encapsulation/Decapsulation (Tunneling) Throughput . . . 10
             4.4.1. Encapsulation Throughput. . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
             4.4.2. Decapsulation Throughput. . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
             4.4.3. Re-encapsulation Throughput . . . . . . . . . . . 14
   5.  Forwarding Latency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
       5.1.  Multicast Latency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
       5.2.  Min/Max Multicast Latency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
   6.  Overhead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
       6.1.  Group Join Delay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
       6.2.  Group Leave Delay. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
   7.  Capacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
       7.1.  Multicast Group Capacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
   8.  Interaction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
       8.1.  Forwarding Burdened Multicast Latency. . . . . . . . . . 25
       8.2.  Forwarding Burdened Group Join Delay . . . . . . . . . . 27
   9.  Security Considerations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
   10. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
   11. Contributions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
   12. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
       12.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
       12.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
   13. Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
   14. Full Copyright Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

1.  Introduction

   This document defines tests for measuring and reporting the
   throughput, forwarding, latency and Internet Group Management
   Protocol (IGMP) group membership characteristics of devices that
   support IP multicast protocols.  The results of these tests will
   provide the user with meaningful data on multicast performance.

   A previous document, "Terminology for IP Multicast Benchmarking"
   [Du98], defined many of the terms that are used in this document.
   The terminology document should be consulted before attempting to
   make use of this document.

   This methodology will focus on one source to many destinations,
   although many of the tests described may be extended to use multiple
   source to multiple destination topologies.

   Subsequent documents may address IPv6 multicast and related multicast