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Hash and Stuffing: Overlooked Factors in Network Device Benchmarking
RFC 4814

Approval announcement
Draft of message to be sent after approval:

Announcement

From: The IESG <iesg-secretary@ietf.org>
To: IETF-Announce <ietf-announce@ietf.org>
Cc: Internet Architecture Board <iab@iab.org>,
    RFC Editor <rfc-editor@rfc-editor.org>, 
    bmwg mailing list <bmwg@ietf.org>, 
    bmwg chair <bmwg-chairs@tools.ietf.org>
Subject: Document Action: 'Hash and Stuffing: Overlooked Factors 
         in Network Device Benchmarking' to Informational RFC 

The IESG has approved the following document:

- 'Hash and Stuffing: Overlooked Factors in Network Device Benchmarking '
   <draft-ietf-bmwg-hash-stuffing-09.txt> as an Informational RFC

This document is the product of the Benchmarking Methodology Working 
Group. 

The IESG contact persons are David Kessens and Dan Romascanu.

A URL of this Internet-Draft is:
http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-bmwg-hash-stuffing-09.txt

Ballot Text

Technical Summary
 
 Test engineers take pains to declare all factors that affect a given
 measurement, including intended load, packet length, test duration,
 and traffic orientation. However, current benchmarking practice
 overlooks two factors that have a profound impact on test results.
 First, existing methodologies do not require the reporting of
 addresses or other test traffic contents, even though these fields
 can affect test results. Second, "stuff" bits and bytes inserted in
 test traffic by some link-layer technologies add significant and
 variable overhead, which in turn affects test results. This document
 describes the effects of these factors; recommends guidelines for
 test traffic contents; and offers formulas for determining the
 probability of bit- and byte-stuffing in test traffic. 

Working Group Summary
 
 From the initial work proposal through the final WG Last Call, there was
 wide agreement that this work was important for BMWG in that it added
 key testing considerations to our body of literature.
 
Protocol Quality
 
 David Kessens reviewed this document for the IESG.

RFC Editor Note