Guidelines for Considering New Performance Metric Development
RFC 6390

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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                          A. Clark
Request for Comments: 6390                         Telchemy Incorporated
BCP: 170                                                       B. Claise
Category: Best Current Practice                      Cisco Systems, Inc.
ISSN: 2070-1721                                             October 2011

     Guidelines for Considering New Performance Metric Development

Abstract

   This document describes a framework and a process for developing
   Performance Metrics of protocols and applications transported over
   IETF-specified protocols.  These metrics can be used to characterize
   traffic on live networks and services.

Status of This Memo

   This memo documents an Internet Best Current Practice.

   This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
   (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
   received public review and has been approved for publication by the
   Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Further information on
   BCPs is available in Section 2 of RFC 5741.

   Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
   and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6390.

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
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Clark & Claise            Best Current Practice                 [Page 1]
RFC 6390             Guidelines Perf. Metric Devel.         October 2011

   This document may contain material from IETF Documents or IETF
   Contributions published or made publicly available before November
   10, 2008.  The person(s) controlling the copyright in some of this
   material may not have granted the IETF Trust the right to allow
   modifications of such material outside the IETF Standards Process.
   Without obtaining an adequate license from the person(s) controlling
   the copyright in such materials, this document may not be modified
   outside the IETF Standards Process, and derivative works of it may
   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.

Clark & Claise            Best Current Practice                 [Page 2]
RFC 6390             Guidelines Perf. Metric Devel.         October 2011

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction ....................................................4
      1.1. Background and Motivation ..................................4
      1.2. Organization of This Document ..............................5
   2. Terminology .....................................................5
      2.1. Requirements Language ......................................5
      2.2. Performance Metrics Directorate ............................5
      2.3. Quality of Service .........................................5
      2.4. Quality of Experience ......................................6
      2.5. Performance Metric .........................................6
   3. Purpose and Scope ...............................................6
   4. Relationship between QoS, QoE, and Application-Specific
      Performance Metrics .............................................7
   5. Performance Metrics Development .................................7
      5.1. Identifying and Categorizing the Audience ..................7
      5.2. Definitions of a Performance Metric ........................8
      5.3. Computed Performance Metrics ...............................9
           5.3.1. Composed Performance Metrics ........................9
           5.3.2. Index ..............................................10
      5.4. Performance Metric Specification ..........................10
           5.4.1. Outline ............................................10
           5.4.2. Normative Parts of Performance Metric Definition ...11
           5.4.3. Informative Parts of Performance Metric
                  Definition .........................................13
           5.4.4. Performance Metric Definition Template .............14
           5.4.5. Example: Loss Rate .................................15
      5.5. Dependencies ..............................................16
           5.5.1. Timing Accuracy ....................................16