Reference

i

NBS

PUBLICATIONS

NATL INST. OF STAND & TECH 35-3104

AlllDb DMflSSl _ _ J rerrormance Measurement of OSI

Class 4 Transport Implementations

Kevin L. Mills

Jeff W. Gura

C. Michael Chernick

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Bureau of Standards

Institute for Computer Sciences and Technology

Systems and Network Architecture Division

Gaithersburg, MD 20899

January 1 985

-QC100

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

YAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS

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35-3104

1985

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NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS

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NBSIR 85-3104

» »» PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT OF OSI

CLASS 4 TRANSPORT IMPLEMENTATIONS

Kevin L. Mills

Jeff W. Gura

C. Michael Chernick

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Bureau of Standards

Institute for Computer Sciences and Technology

Systems and Network Architecture Division

Gaithersburg, MD 20899

January 1985

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, Malcolm Baldrige, Secretary

NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS, Ernest Ambler. Director

PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT OF OSI CLASS 4 TRANSPORT IMPLEMENTATIONS

Kevin L. Mills

Jeff W. Gura

C. Michael Chernick

A measurement system to evaluate the performance of open system interconnection (OSI) transport protocol implementations is described. Several

metrics are proposed to establish a quantitative characterization of

layered protocol performance. Metrics specific to the OSI transport

protocol are also proposed. The measurement system and metrics were

applied to a multi -vendor National Computer Conference demonstration

network and the results are reported.
I. Introduction

Over the past four years, the international standards community has begun

to reach a consensus on protocols for the first four layers of the open

system interconnection (OSI) reference model [1], A key protocol within

the OSI model is the end-to-end transport protocol [2]. This protocol

has reached the status of a recommended international standard within the

International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and is a 1984 CCITT

recommendation. The National Bureau of Standards (NBS) has been an

important contributor to the design, specification, and correctness

testing of the most robust class of the OSI transport .protocol , class 4.

This paper reports the results of some additional work of the NBS concerning performance measurement of class 4 transport protocol implementations.

At the 1984 National Computer Conference (NCC), nine vendors demonstrated

interoperability over an IEEE 802.3 (CSMA/CD) local area network using

class 4 transport as the end-to-end protocol. The implementation strategies used ranged from integration of transport and CSMA/CD protocols on

a single board to partitioning of the protocol layers across multiple

computer systems. Another group of six computer vendors demonstrated

interoperabi lity over an IEEE 802.4 (token bus) local area network also

using class 4 transport as the end-to-end protocol.

The NBS performed a major role in preparing these demonstrations by

hosting a series of workshops detailing the specific features of the

class 4 transport protocol to be used in the demonstrations and explaining NBS-devel oped test methods to ensure vendor interworking prior to

- 2-
to the NCC [3-7], In addition, the NBS provided a performance measurement

node on the CSMA/CD network. This paper describes the structure of the

NBS developed protocol performance measurement system (Section II);

describes the measures that the system can make (Section III); and

reports several results obtained through application of the measurement

system during the pre-NCC vendor preparation period (Section IV).

II. Measurement System Structure

An important design requirement for the measurement system is to provide

the ability to make performance measurements for a variety of operational

modes, including: (1) real-time measurement experiments with off-line data

analysis, (2) real-time measurement demonstrations with graphic displays,

and (3) off-line analysis of data traffic collected in disk files. An

additional design requirement, for the measurement system, is to work within

a variety of environments, including: (1) as a node on a CSMA/CD network,

(2) as a process on the NBS test center host, and (3) as an independent

process within a time-sharing system.

These requirements led to a decision to structure the measurement system

as three independent subsystems: (1) data collection, (2) measurement,

and (3) analysis and display. The general relationships between these

three subsystems are illustrated in Figure 1. For a number of reasons

including portability, availability, and ease of development, the subsystems are implemented in the C language as three separate UNIX (TM AT&T

- 3 -
'
itin*1

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Bell Laboratories) processes. The following paragraphs describe the

measurement methodology used and role of each subsystem in implementing

the methodology.

A. Measurement Methodol ogy

Several approaches have been used to make communications protocol performance measurements. For example, at the NBS, a network measurement

machine has been developed for measuring network service at the application level as seen by the user [10-12]. The network measurement machine

is programmed to recognize user dialogue with a time-sharing system and

all measures and metrics are user-oriented. This method is passive in

that making the measures does not degrade the performance of the system

being measured

A second approach is to measure protocol performance by instrumenting the

transport service interface within a host computer system [13]. This permits

accumulation of an accurate picture of the transport service experienced by

an application program using a network. The measurement system need only

recognize requests for transport service from an application program.

A third approach to protocol performance measurement is to internally

instrument the communications programs within the hosts and/or switching

nodes of a network [14-16]. This requires a detailed knowledge of all

communications software involved and entails careful consideration of the

possibility of measurement artifact. The measures that are obtained are

very detailed but are specific to the particular software implementation

strategy used.

-4-

A fourth approach to protocol performance measurement is to monitor peer

to peer protocol exchanges on network links. This method has been proven

to work in a commercial environment for making measures of response time,

throughput, down time, line utilization, and traffic distribution [17].

Each line to be monitored is tapped so that traffic in both directions

can be monitored without affecting the performance of the communicating

systems. To use this method, the protocol being operated over the link

must be recognized by the monitor.

The methodology adopted by the NBS and reported here is based upon passively

monitoring peer to peer protocol exchanges on a LAN. Details of the

protocol encoding recognized by the NBS protocol performance measurement

system are provided below.

B. Encodings - Protocol Data Units

OSI packets are known as protocol data units (PDUs) consisting of a

header and, optionally, data. For each layer of the OSI model above the

physical layer, separate PDU types are defined. The NBS protocol measurement system recognizes the link layer (LPDUs), network layer (NPDUs),

transport layer (TPDUs), and transport user. The transport user sends

messages known as transport service data units (TSDUs). Each TSDU is

composed of an ordered set of one or more TSDUs. The measurement system

always recognizes TPDUs and TSDUs and may, depending upon specific configuration, recognize LPDUs and NPDUs. The most general form of PDU encoding

recognized is shown in Figure 2.

- 5 -



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On the demonstration LAN, a frame consists of one or more TPDUs nested

within an NPDU itself nested within an LPDU. The LPDU consists of a

link header and link data (i.e., NPDU plus TPDUs). The NPDU contains a

network header and network data (i.e., TPDUs). Within the confines of

the NCC demonstration, the link header had a fixed length of 17-bytes and

the network header had a fixed length of 1-byte. The TPDUs used were of

variable length and formatted as shown in Figure 3.

A TPDU is composed of a variable length header and, an optional, variable

length data field. A TPDU header contains a length indicator, a fixed

part, and a variable part. The length indicator describes the size of

the TPDU header only and, thus, the length of the TPDU data must be

i nferred .from information supplied by the network layer and from application of the transport protocol rules for concatenation of multiple TPDUs

within a network protocol data unit.

The fixed part of the TPDU Header is present in every TPDU, but differs

in size depending on TPDU type (see Table 1) and on negotiated options for

a specific connection. For example, a DT TPDU always contains a sequence

number, but the length of that field may be 1 or 4 bytes depending on

the sequence number space agreed for the transport connection over which

the DT TPDU flows. The size of the fixed part of a TPDU header is small,

ranging from 4 to 9 bytes.

- 6 -

The variable part of the TPDU header is optional for each TPDU and varies

in size depending upon the specific parameters encoded within it. Examples of parameters that may be carried in the variable part of a TPDU

include a checksum, a subsequence number, connection establishment options and security parameters. In principle, the variable part of the

TPDU header can be quite large because, for specific TPDU types, several

options can be up to 255 bytes in length; however, for the NCC demonstration the field was used only for checksum, subsequence numbers, and flow

control confirmation parameters ranging in size from 4 to 22 bytes.

The data portion of the TPDU is permitted only in CR, CC, DT, ED and DR

TPDUs. For the demonstration, data was present only on DT and ED TPDUs.

Data within an ED TPDU is limited to a maximum of 16 bytes. Data size

within a DT TPDU is subject to negotiation on each transport connection

and may range from 1 to 8192 bytes. For purposes of the NCC demonstration, actual data sizes were limited to 1496 bytes because no segmenting

of NPDUs across multiple LPDUs was implemented and LPDUs were restricted

to 1513 bytes.

The sections that follow describe the role of each subsystem in capturing

and decoding the network traffic so that measurements may be made. The

role of the subsystems in analysis is also described.

C. Data Collection

The data collection subsystem collects PDUs from the network, discards

the TPDU data, time stamps each set of PDU headers, and provides a device-

- 7 -
like interface for use by the measurement subsystem to read PDU headers.

Data collection on a local area network is illustrated in Figure 4. The

node containing the data collection subsystem is operated in a mode such

that all LPDUs may be read from the network. Using this technique, every

LPDU between every host pair can be captured for measurement.

As illustrated in Figure 5, an alternate data collection mechanism is

available for use when the measurement system is embedded as a process

within the NBS test center host [8,9], The exception generator process

within the test center host is positioned as a data collection mechanism

at the boundary between the transport and network processes. Every message

(containing embedded TPDUs) crossing that interface can be captured by

the exception generator. The exception generator logs these messages to

a disk file and, optionally, can pass the messages directly to the measurement subsystem for real-time performance monitoring. This data collection

mechanism is network independent so that measurement can be app.lied to

the MILNET, the TELENET public data network, and IEEE 802.3 local networks.

Another data collection option is to capture on a disk file the messages

and/or PDU headers. This information may be captured by the exception generator

or by logging the output of the data collection subsystem of the performance

measurement system to disk. This captured network traffic is then measured

off-line as shown in Figure 6.

D. Measurement

The measurement subsystem: consumes the LPDU/NPDU/TPDU header; analyzes

the protocol implications of each PDU; computes aggregate, host, and trans-

- 8 -
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port connection measures; and produces a periodic output stream of the

computed measures. Details of the specific measures collected are given

in Section III.

The measurement subsystem operates on the basis of separate measurement

and reporting intervals. Measures are accumulated over a user defined measurement interval; then the accumulated measures are cleared and a new

measurement interval is started. The user may also specify a separate

and independent report interval. The separation of report intervals from

measurement intervals permits one or more reports to be made during each

measurement interval. This flexibility provides support for both performance experiments and real-time display updates. Typical performance

experiments operate with identical measurement and report intervals equal

to ten or fifteen minutes. Typical real-time display applications run

with a measurement interval of two minutes and a report interval of ten

seconds (i.e., 12 reports per measurement interval). The measurement

system runs until stopped by manual intervention or until a given number

of measurement intervals has been processed.

To simplify the internal measurement logic, the measurement system

always collects every measure for which it is programmed as opposed to

collecting a subset of measures under user instruction. However, if every

measure were reported, the output data stream could easily exceed ten

thousand bytes per report interval. This large output stream can slow the

operation of the measurement subsystem, causing network traffic to be

missed when running real-time experiments on high speed networks. To

allow more flexibility to run real-time as well as off-line measurement

experiments the measurement subsystem has been implemented so that
specific subsets of measures may be reported as requested by the user

when the measurement subsystem is started.

E. Analysi s and Pi splay

The analysis and display subsystem consists of a number of independent

programs that consume the stream of raw measures reported by the measurement subsystem and produce metrics and/or graphs. One display program

simply decodes the raw measure stream and produces a human-readable

report. This program is useful for debugging the measurement subsystem, for

learning about the measurement subsystem output formats, and for obtaining

ad hoc information to be used to design a specific analysis routine.

Two sets of programs produce multiple graphic displays in the configurations illustrated in Figures 4 and 5. One set of programs creates histograms and tables on character-oriented displays. These programs provide

a low resolution bar graph output and were developed as part of a

prototype measurement system. The second set of programs creates line

graphs, 3-D histograms, block diagrams, and tables on high resolution

color graphic displays. This set of programs was used at the NCC 1984 to

demonstrate class 4 transport operation over a CSMA/CD network.

Another program produces a pair of matrices representing raw measures

and the metrics computed from the measures. This program supports performance experiments and was used to produce the information presented in

Section IV of this paper.

- 10 -
Since the analysis and display programs are independent of each other and

operate from a well defined input stream, users can easily create new

programs for specific experiments. However, if new measures are required,

modifications must be made to the measurement subsystem.

III. Measures

The measurement subsystem collects a large number of measures, permitting

many types of analyses to be conducted. The approach used to collect the

measures is one of protocol monitoring. The measurement subsystem decodes

every LPDU, NPDU, and TPDU captured by the data collection subsystem and

monitors the progress of every transport connection on the network.

Tracking transport connections enables accumulation of connection, host,

and aggregate level measures. Several of the measures collected are

described below.

A. Aggregate Level

Aggregate measures consist of the accumulation of link, network, and

and transport measures for all hosts on the LAN. For the link, total

LPDUs, total bytes in all LPDUs, and the analogous totals for the peak

second are measured. For the network, total NPDUs and total bytes in all

NPDUs are counted. The most detailed measures are for the transport

layer.

Transport measurement is capable of discriminating information bytes from

overhead bytes as well as data bytes from header bytes. The definition

- 11 -
of data and header bytes is taken directly from the format of a given

TPDU. Overhead includes all header bytes plus all retransmitted data

bytes. Information includes only the original transmission of data

bytes

.

The transport measures also contain a record of transport connection

activity including the number of transport connection attempts, the number

of successfully established connections, the number of connection refusals, and the number of connection negotiation failures. A number of

measures are also provided by TPDU type (see Table 1) including count of

TPDUs, count of retransmitted TPDUs, and count of information, overhead,

data, and header bytes.

The measurement system is capable of recognizing the concatenation of DT

TPDUs into larger messages known as transport service data units (TSDUs).

The number of TSDUs and bytes in all TSDUs are counted. The measurement

system also produces a histogram of TPDU and TSDU sizes. Ten size

intervals are provided, and the bounds can be specified at program compilation time.

B . Host Level

Host measures consist of the accumulation of measures specific to each

host on the network. Usually, a host contributes a portion of the

total network traffic characterized by the aggregate measures. For a

host, the measures are separated into a "transmitted" class and a "received"

class. This allows an individual assessment of each host as a transport

- 12 -
sender and receiver. A performance analyst can work with the appropriat

metrics for each host to determine the contribution of specific hosts to

the aggregate performance.

Some measures not applicable at the aggregate level are available at

the host level. For example, a counter is incremented each time a

host sends into a closed flow control window. TPDUs sent into closed

windows are usually discarded, therefore, frequent occurrence of this

behavior involving a specific host or pair of hosts may indicate a

poorly performing flow control strategy.

C. Connection Level

The measures collected at the connection level are fundamental because

they allow the appropriate accumulation of the same measures at the host

and aggregate levels. For example, if the measurement system did not

track transport connections, it would be impossible to determine retrans

missions and accumulate the total number of overhead bytes. In addition

to being required in order to collect other measures, the connection

level allows some measures that are not applicable at the aggregate and

host levels. These additional measures are described further below.

For each transport connection, the current perceived state is always

available along with a history of states. This allows determination of

opening, established, closing, and closed connections. At a finer level

of detail, connections closed abruptly can be distinguished from those

closed gracefully and those closed as a result of a protocol violation.

- 13 -
Several time stamps are also recorded for each connection including:

start, stop, and time of last activity. The period during which the flow

control window is closed in each direction of flow is provided to aid a

performance analyst in isolating an inadequate flow control strategy as

a cause of poor throughput.

The remaining measures maintained for each transport connection are

identical to those kept at the host level. Separate measures are collected

for each direction of flow on every transport connection.

D. Limitations

The measurement subsystem as implemented has several limitations. First,

every TPDU must be collected or the measures will be incomplete. Some

TPDUs, however, are more critical than others. For example, if TPDUs

associated with connection establishment are missed, the monitor will be

unaware of the connection. In such a case, the remaining TPDUs on the

connection are counted in a category of TPDUs that could not be assigned

to a transport connection. If TPDUs associated with connection termination are missed, a measurement subsystem inactivity timer will eventually expire, thus terminating measurement on the connection. Experience

with measurement under the loads generated by the NCC demonstration traffic

uncovered no evidence of missed TPDUs.

The inability of the measurement subsystem to operate properly when

packets are grossly misordered or when a transport implementation withholds

- 14 -
sending acknowledgements for extraordinarily long periods is a limitation that exists because a maximum duplication detection window of 32

TPDUs is implemented. This window size was selected because it was the

largest that could be obtained while still enabling operations on the

duplicate detection windows to be carried out in an expeditious manner

through bit maps. During the demonstration this window size did not prove

to be a limitation. Only a long propogation delay, high bandwidth environment is expected to present a problem (e.g., 1.544 Mbps or higher sat e 11 i

t

channel s )

.

A third limitation is the exclusion of delay measures for two reasons.

First, the measurement system is a node on the network and thus not at

either terminus of an end-to-end connection. This causes the measurement

system to be unable to determine significant portions of the delay as

seen by a transport service user. Several estimating techniques were

developed to solve this problem, but the remaining difficulty of implementing a solution within the processing time and memory space budget of the

measurement system could not be overcome during initial development.

Second, due to the possibility of misordering data and withholding of

acknowledgements, maintaining a delay measure would require the measurement subsystem to buffer and reorder time stamped sequence numbers

for both directions of flow for every transport connection. Buffering is

required to allow matching of AK TPDUs to associated DT TPDUs and reordering is required to distinguish TSDUs. These operations are prohibitive

- 15 -
in terms of processing of time and memory space for the 100 to 150

connections expected.

IV. App 1 i cation

As already noted, the performance measurement system described above was

connected to a CSMA/CD network at the NCC 1984. The network was

populated by computer products from the vendors shown in Table 2. Each

vendor implemented the IEEE 802.3 standard at the link layer, a null

network layer, ISO class 4 transport at the transport layer, and a subset

of the planned ISO file transfer protocol at the application layer. No

session or presentation layers were implemented.

The general concept of the NCC demonstration was user entry of a file at •

one computer system and transfer to another computer system for viewing.

Additionally, a number of graphics files were located around the

network for retrieval by users at graphics workstations. This configuration leads to a natural traffic pattern of bulk data transfer where

several hosts are primary data sources while other hosts are primary data

sinks. A few hosts served in an equal capacity as data sources and

sinks.

While the NCC demonstration was running, the NBS protcol performance

measurement system produced real-time color graphic displays. The

displays showed the basic connectivity, the number of connections per

host, the distribution of traffic by TPDU type, and the number of data

octets transmitted by each host. In addition, during the demonstration.

- 16 -
Table 2 NCC 1 984 CSMA/CD Demonstration

Participants

Advanced Computer Communications

Boeing Computer Services

Charles River Data Systems

Digital Equipment Corporation

Honeywell Information Systems

Hewlett-Packard Company

International Computers Limited

Intel Corporation

National Bureau of Standards

NCR Corporation

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measures were collected to allow the generation of several metrics offline. The metrics computed are described in the following paragraphs, and

then specific values obtained during the pre-demonstrati on test period are

presented and interpreted.

A. Metrics

Performance metrics provide a quantitative characterization of specific

aspects of system performance [16, 18-25]. For the protocol performance

experiments reported here, the metrics were derived from the available

measures in one of two ways: (1) expressing some measures with respect

to time or (2) expressing two measures as a ratio. Using these simple

concepts, a large amount of information can be derived.- The specific

metrics used in these experiments are described below and a summary is

shown in Table 3.

Throughput

Information throughput is the amount of user information transferred per

unit of time. Two levels of throughput were computed: link information

throughput and transport information throughput. In controlled experiments a system can be loaded as heavily as possible and the throughput observed can provide a measure of system capacity. For the purposes

of this report, link information throughput (T|_) in bits per second, is

defined as:

TL =8^ (1)

M

- 18 -
Table 3 Summary of Metrics

Metri c

T[_

tt

UC

EC

El

e n

Et

C E

r 0M

r oa

r rd

r ra

S D

Definition

Link Information Throughput in Bits per Second

Transport Information Throughput in Bits per Second

Channel Utilization as a Fraction of Channel Capacity

Channel Efficiency as a Fraction of Channel Capacity

Link Protocol Efficiency as a Fraction of Perfect

Effi ciency

Network Protocol Efficiency as a Fraction of Perfect

Effi ci ency

Transport Protocol Efficiency as a Fraction of Perfect

Effi ciency

Combined Protocol Efficiency as a Fraction of Perfect

Effi ci ency

Ratio of Original DTs to Total TPDUs

Ratio of Original DTs to Original AKs

Ratio of Retransmitted DTs to Total DTs

Ratio of Retransmitted AKs to Total AKs

Average Data Field Length per DT

- 19 -
where is the number of NPDU bytes transferred on the network during

the measurement interval and M is the size of the measurement interval in

seconds. Transport information throughput (Ty) is defined similarly:

Ty = _8]i (2)

M

where T-j is the number of TPDU information bytes transferred on the

channel during a measurement interval and M is the size of the measurement

interval in seconds.

Channel Uti 1 iztion and Efficiency

A given channel is engineered to provide a specific information carrying

capacity per unit time. For example, the demonstration IEEE 802.3 local

area network provides a capacity of about 10 Mbps*. The ratio of the

actual number of bits on the channel per unit time to the capacity is the

channel utilization. Using measures from the measurement subsystem, channel

utilization (U c ) as a fraction of capacity is computed as:

U c = 8Lh (3)

MR

where is the number of LPDU bytes transferred on the channel during

a measurement interval, M is the size of the measurement interval in

seconds, and R is the capacity of the channel in bits per second.

*The actual capacity of a CSMA/CD network is a function of the traffic in

a given second. This is true because of the required inter-frame time of

9.6 microseconds. Thus, 10 Mbps is an upper limit where the real rate

observed will be lower but typically much less than one percent lower.

- 20 -
Channel efficiency is the ratio of user information bits on the network

per unit time to the capacity of the channel. For the experiments under

consideration the user is defined to be the transport service user. The

computation of channel efficiency (E c ) as a fraction of capacity is:

Ec

= 8Tj (4)

MR

where Tj is the number of TPDU information bytes transferred on the

channel during a measurement interval, M is the measurement interval

size in seconds, and R is the capacity of the channel in bits per second.

Protocol Efficiency

Protocol efficiency is a measure of the ratio of information bits sent to

total bits sent for a specific protocol layer or for all layers of protocol.

The ideal protocol efficiency is one. Efficiency decreases as the

value of the metric decreases. Several protocol efficiency metrics were

used to evaluate the performance of the NCC demonstration system including: link, network, transport, and combined protocol efficiencies. Link

protocol efficiency (Ej_), as a fraction of perfect efficiency, is defined

as:

e l =_n^_ (5)

Lb

where and L5 are the number of NPDU bytes and LPDU bytes, respecti vely

,

transferred on the channel during a measurement interval.

- 21 -
Network Protocol efficiency (Ej\j), as a fraction of perfect efficiency, is

defined as:

En = Tb (6)

Nb

where and Nb are the number of TPDU bytes and NPDU bytes respecti vely

,

transferred on the channel during a measurement interval.

Transport protocol efficiency (Ej), as a fraction of perfect efficiency is

defined as:

ET =Ji_ (7)

Tb

where T-j and Tb are the number of TPDU information bytes and TPDU bytes,

respectively, transferred on the channel during a measurement interval.

Since protocol efficiency is the ratio of information bytes transmitted

to total bytes transmitted, a layered set of protocols diminishes

the protocol efficiency incrementally for each layer. This can be

understood by considering a unit of information to be passed through a

seven layer protocol system. At each layer, the original information has

header bytes appended when being sent out of the system. The header

bytes are removed as the original information passes through each layer

coming into the system. Therefore, in general, combined protocol efficiency (C E

). as a fraction of perfect efficiency, in a layered protocol

system i s

:

C E = _Ui_ (8)

Sb

where Uj is the total number of bytes in a user message and Sb is the

total number of bytes sent by the protocol system to transfer the user

message

.

- 22 -
In the three layer (Link, Network, Transport) model understood by the

measurement system, the combined protocol effiency is:

C E = Tj_ (9)

L b

where T-j is the number of TPDU information bytes sent on the channel and

Lb is the number of LPDU bytes sent on the channel.

The concept that each protocol layer diminishes the combined protocol

efficency is illustrated by an alternate method of computing combined

protocol efficiency.

C E = E Le Ne T (10)

where El, E,\j, and Ej are link, network, and transport protocol efficiencies, respectively. In general, for an N-layered protocol system:

N

i =i

where N is the number of protocol layers in the system and E-j is the

efficiency of the i layer.

Combined protocol efficiency can also be viewed as the ratio of

channel capacity used for transferring user information to channel

utilization. Thus, for the three layer model of the measurement system:

CE = _§L_ (12)

UC

where Eq is channel efficiency and Uq is channel utilization.

- 23 -
Other Ratios

Several other ratios can be used as metrics for the evaluation of transport

protocol implementation performance including: the ratio of original data

transmissions to total transmissions (Rqm), the ratio of original data

transmissions to original acknowledgements (Rqa)» and the ratios of

retransmissions to total transmissions for data ( Rrd) and acknowledgements

( r RA)‘

Rqm and r 0A permit several inferences to be drawn. Normally, if Rqa is

equal to or just below one, then a scheme of one acknowledgement per data

message is being used, and data transfer has probably proceeded without

i nterrupti on . As Rqa increases above one, then an acknowledgement withholding strategy is being used so that one acknowledgement covers multiple

data messages. The ratio is computed as:

(Dt - Dr) (13)

r oa = (at - ar)

where Dj and Ay are the total number of DT and AK TPDUs, respectively,

counted during a measurement interval and Dr and Ar are the total number

of retransmitted DT and AK TPDUs, respectively, counted during the same

measurement interval.

Rom indicates the number of overhead messages required to transmit

each data message on the network. This metric gives a measure of the

efficiency of the protocol from the perspective of messages. The

information is useful because each message transmitted requires some

CPU processing time that is not a direct function of message size. As

- 24 -
Rom approaches one the CPU message processing required to deliver the data

approaches a minimum. The ratio is computed as:

r 0M = D0 ( 14 ) My

where Oq is the count of original DT TPDUs sent on the channel during a

measurement interval and Mj is the count of all TPDUs sent on the channel

during the same interval. This formulation of the metric is acceptable

if expedited data messages are ignored. No expedited data messages were

used in the NCC demonstration.

The ratio of retransmitted data messages to total data messages (Rrq)

should ideally be zero. As Rrq approaches one, data messages are being

retransmitted at an unacceptably high rate and no service is provided to

the user. Retransmission of data messages can have a number of causes

including network errors, lost messages, and improperly tuned retransmission timers. The ratio is computed as:

r RD = °R ( 15 ) DT

where Dr is the count of retransmitted DT TPDUs sent on the channel

during a measurement interval and Dj is the count of all DT TPDUs sent

during the same measurement interval.

The ratio of retransmitted acknowledgements to total acknowledgements

(Rra) should ideally be zero assuming continuous full-duplex data flow on

the transport connections. When data flows continuously in only one

direction, Rra increases because acknowledgements are sent in the direction of data flow at the rate of the window timer and these acknowledge-

- 25 -
ments will, in general, be duplicates. Other causes for a large Rr/\ include: open transport connections with no data flow, transport connections with bursty data flow, inappropriately short values for the window

timer, and a receiver persisting in retransmitting acknowledgements for

flow control confirmation following a closed window or credit reduction.

The ratio is computed as:

rRA = aR (16)

At

where Ar is the count of retransmitted AK TPDUs sent on the channel

during a measurement interval and Aj is the count of all AK TPDUs sent

during the same interval.

Data Message Size

An important factor contributing to protocol efficiency is the size of

the data portion of data messages. In an error free environment, the

larger the size of the data messages sent the greater the protocol

efficiency. When errors are introduced, an increasing message size provides better efficiency only to the point where the probability of an error

within the block becomes so high that Rrq increases and, thus, protocol

efficiency decreases. Because of the importance of block size, a metric

specifying the average size of the data field in data messages (Sg) was

computed as:

S D - li (17)

(Dj - Dr)

where Tj is the count of TPDU information bytes sent during a measurement

- 26 -
interval and Dj and Dr are the count of total and ret ransmitted DT TPDUs,

respectively, during the same interval.

The metrics described above are a subset of the metrics used within the

NBS protocol performance laboratory for performance experiments and for

simulation modeling involving the ISO class 4 transport protocol [26].

Several delay metrics are also used in the NBS protocol performance

laboratory, but are not applicable to the experiments reported in this

paper.

Results

The results described below were obtained by applying the measurement

system to the IEEE 802.3 network installed at the NBS during preparations

for the multi -vendor CSMA/CD demonstration at the NCC 1984. Nine vendors

(see Table 2) had products on the network. Table 4 presents the measures

obtained at the aggregate level over a two hour period. Table 5 presents

the metrics that were computed from the measures in Table 4. The following paragraphs discuss the results.

Load and Throughput

As can easily be seen from the metrics for throughput, channel utilization,

and channel efficiency, the 10 Mbps CSMA/CD channel was very lightly loaded

at less than 1%. This result may seem somewhat surprising since up to

nine hosts were involved in file transfers and as many as 54 transport

connections were active over a fifteen minute period. The light load is

- 27 -
TABLE 4

RAW

MEASURES

COLLECTED

JUNE

13,

1984

BETWEEN

5:16

p.m.

and

7:16

p.m.

(15

MINUTE

INTERVALS)

oo

_l UO CO d" r^ CO CO cn CO un CO CO

1— UO CO CO LD CO d- CO CO CO CO r^ o CO CM CO O'! CO r-'- CO c-. cn LO o r-» O 1— i— CO 1— CO 1— 1— d- o CO CO o LD cn CO

CO co CO d- CO cn cn r— i— ^r r—“ LO CO d- CO CO

C\J 1— CM 1— CM CTi d- CO i— .i

— co CTi CO CM 1— CO

CM CO CO CM CO CO 1

d- d" CO

dI''. CO LO co 00 00 CO r--. CO

un CM un (T> un o o oo

O r~- CO o LO CO CO 00 1— co o 1— 1—• o i— O o CO CM

I-". 1— r^. 1— r"- i— 1— 1—

— r— r— i— CM o d- i—

h'.d- o LO LO o un o CO o co CO CM CM CO 00 CO cn CM cn CO cn d- co CO d- r— d- d- LO

i"- un i

iun CO r—»

un LO <Ti r—

LO r-» LO co LO un i

i— un CO i

un 1

o CO t— o LO

un co *=3" o d- d- o o CM co CM CM r-» r-~. o CO c i— o m 00 co un i o un

O <T> co 1—•

CO i— CO un un un un l un

O l i"- o CO 1

co CO o o co CO CO

«vi“ cn cn cn o cn CO CO CO CO CO i"-* CO I--. CO CO n-. co d- CO r~ CO co 1 o CM i— CM CO

r-* r— CM r— r— cn Cn 1— CM o r— o 1 o CO i— CO i

CO CO un un CO r— 1

CO io CM

cn CO LO o co un * CO

CO d" CO cn cn CM CO

co co cn CO i—

CO r^ CM cn CO r— o CM CO CM o CM o r- i

d- 00 CO lo CM r— CM CO CM o CM CO uo CM r^- o CO r— r— r—

un

d- un CO un C\J i— CO CM CO i— CM 1— co r—

CM CO o CO CM CO o n- CO r-. LO uo CM CM r-^ CM CO cn CO un co r— r— o CO CO CO i— o r—

LO co LO uo un LO o co CM CO i

UO co LO

CM co CM r— CM cn r— d- un r— cn un <• d- CO •=3“ CO d- 

r— un CM CO 1ii

CM i

uo d- CO co co CO

CO

O o un o un o o r— UO CO uo co UO r— o un r— o cn r— 1

UO

cn d- cn i— cn UO cn 00 LO co UO cn CO CM <n CM CM CM CO o i— LO r— i^» CO r- cr» CM CM d- CM d- CM d" 1— CO m i— CM — 1— i— CM 1—

cn r— CM

r-» LO CO un r— d" LO o co *3“ 00 co i

co CM un

CM un CM CO CM 00 CM r—

d- *=d" CO un

LO un LO LO 00 cn co CM CO 00 cn CM co 1 co CM 1

CO un CM CM 1

1

i

un CM 1


 +->CU -M UO

CJ +-> o <u UO oo +-> +J UO

C so LU c u CU IS) +-> o „ o

CC o o +-> +-> CU -f— • 1

ZD •r- CJ a> +J uo uo OO +-> -o O +j a uo IS) <c <T3 id u o •i

•I

LO uo uo E CU i- o UO E E

4-> +J S- -C O) i— +-> uo uo CU a) o “O id fO a> CO c

+J +-> <4- a> id +-> -m +j IS) Id uo fd U <_> c > a> id o <j ZD s- 00 S- o o 1—1 o zc Q i

o CD +-> CO -(-> UO uo uo CL. CU CL. CU ro => ZD ro ro ZD 00 ZD OO 00 DD 1— CO 1— CD Q o CD Q Q CD CD CD o o CD Q

n_ Q_ D_ Cl. n_ Q_ CL. CL. Q- Q_ 00 cn 1— 1— LO LO _i 1 s: 1— 1— h- h- h- 1— 1— t— Q Q <c <c

Transport

Connections

45

50

54

51265

12

225
Table 5

Metrics

Computed

from

Measures

in

Table

CO cc CMc o

_l CO ld o cn CO lc (JO r~- CO rv CO < co c o o n- O'! co LO CO LO o o 1—

1—o1—

CM o r~ r—=

CM o o CO LD o o c cn r—=

r—•r-v lo o CD c o CD cn <y> CO co o CM o r— • •

cn

CO CD COa't

IVOOOloooo p-. cn CO CM CC c CTi CO LO O o CO CD cc CM LO o CM CO • CO

CMOo o o o LD O O o o o P-. CD CO CO

O o | LD o rv CD CO CM CO o G • CO

LO LO r— G CO o G •ST O o G CO LO CO CD CO r— LO o G rv CD LO CO CO o c G i

• LO

CO

CO r—=

LO LO

G

G CO CO r— CD cc CO CD *^3“ 00 LO

O'! CO

G

G r»» CD CD CO LO

G

G P— CM r— r—

CsJ r— CO

LO

LO

COoG

COOo CO CO

G LO LO LO LO CO rv. G G CO CD CO LO CO LO G c CM

CM P— r—

LO CM

CM r—

G

GG r— LO r— O LO CO CO CO r—

G CO LO CD CM G o CD CO CO G o CO r— 1“

G

cn

rv. o

COGO

LOoo 00 CO rv CM CM CO LO

G LO G G r>» cn LO LO c co G o G CM »—

oog1—H

s: < Q c oc _J I— G G 1 f— UJ G o CC cc

Q 1—

UJ 1— 1— ro LO UJ DJ UJ

G QC cc. QC QC OO

-29-
explained by the fact that the average size of files transferred was

about 4000 bytes. Many small files were used along with a few larger

files, but a limit of 64K bytes per file was adopted by the demonstration participants. The preponderance of short files transferred during

the demonstration limited the probability of long periods of simultaneous

file transfers. Applications with multi -megabyte file transfers would

present a different traffic pattern, raising the probability of long

periods of simultaneous transfer and increasing the load on the network.

An important conclusion that can be drawn from the values for T^, Ty, Uq,

and Uf: given in Table 5 is that the remaining metric values should be

treated with caution due to the exceptionally light network loading.

Additional experiments with much heavier loads are required to assess the

affect of network load on the various metrics.

Protocol Efficiency

The understanding of network protocol efficiency is strai ghtforward

.

Every link packet contained only a single byte of network header and,

therefore, the efficiency of the network protocol was always quite high.

The variability between .97 and .99 is a function of the distribution

of sizes for TPDUs carried in the NPDUs. At the .97 value (interval 5),

a large proportion (67%) of the traffic was AK TPDUs, which are small,

thus the importance of DT TPDU size was diminished. At the .99 values

(intervals 6 and 7), the average size of a DT TPDU (Sg) was relatively large.

- 30 -
The link protocol metric is also easy to explain. Each LPDU contains a

fixed 17-byte header and, therefore, the efficiency of the link protocol

is related directly to the distribution of sizes for TPDUs and to the

number of TPDUs carried in the LPDUs. In the demonstration, TPDUs were

mapped into LPDUs on a one-to-one basis; therefore, the size distribution

of the TPDUs was the only factor affecting link protocol efficiency. In

general, the larger the average DT TPDU size, the greater is the link

protocol efficiency. This is offset by the special cases (e.g., interval

5) when the TPDU traffic is mostly composed of AK TPDUs.

Transport protocol efficiency is the most interesting of the efficiency

metrics. Since the transport protocol efficiency measured on the demonstration network is always lower than efficiencies for the link and

network protocols, the combined protocol efficiency is dominated by the

transport protocol efficiency. The reasons that the transport protocol

efficiency is always the lowest (in the context of this demonstration

network) are traceable to the fact that transport is the first layer of

protocol implementing a connection-oriented service that is providing

end-to-end error detection and correction and explicit end-to-end flow

control. Under circumstances of heavier loading, the medium access

control sublayer of the link layer might experience collisions and

retransmi ssions ; however, in the demonstration network no evidence of

collisions was found.

The header sizes for the transport protocol are, in general, smaller than

the fixed link layer header; however, the transport layer was experiencing

a retransmission rate for DT TPDUs of up to 5%. These retransmi ssi ons

are direct overhead resulting in lower transport protocol efficiency.

- 31 -
For the demonstration network, the CSMA/CD channel was quite reliable and

introduced no errors into LPDUs. The retransmission of DT TPDUs resulted

from two other factors: (1) some of the LAN interface hardware would

occasionally lose LPDUs and (2) some transport implementations would grant

an amount of credit (i.e., permission to transmit) that exceeded the

memory allocated to hold the received TPDUs. The former

factor is caused by malfunctioning hardware that can be fixed. The

latter factor is caused by inappropriate tuning of the credit granting

mechanism for use in a local area network with short propagation delays.

A second trait of the transport protocol that contributes to lower

efficiency is the use of messages that are completely overhead (e.g.,

AK TPDUs). This trait will be evident for any protocol that must provide

a reliable, flow controlled service. This aspect of efficiency is demonstrated by Rom* As Rqm becomes smaller, the transport protocol efficiency

diminishes.

A final factor that affects the efficiency of the transport protocol is

the average DT TPDU size. In the demonstration network, larger average DT

TPDU sizes (Sq) increased the transport protocol efficiency (e.g., intervals

6 and 7)

.

Data and Acknowledgement Ratios

From the data and acknowledgement ratios presented in Table 5 one can

infer the existence of certain inefficiencies within the transport

- 32 -
implementations on the network. The ratios can indicate such conditions

as window timers set too low, poor flow control strategies, poor

acknowledgement strategies, and transport connections open without data

flow. The values for Rra, Rqa, and Rqm in Table 5 are discussed below.

The class 4 transport protocol uses AK TPDUs for the following purposes:

(1) acknowledgement of DT TPDUs, (2) flow control, (3) confirmation of

flow control information, and (4) maintaining the open status of a

quiescent transport connection. Due to the four part role of the AK

TPDU, Rqa and Rra are impossible to interpret meaningfully at the

aggregate level and difficult to interpret at the host level. Several

factors can cause changes in the Rqa and Rra values and, at the

aggregate level, these factors can tend to cancel one another. At the

host level, given some knowledge of the transport implementations involved,

more meaningful i nterpretati ons can be made. These points can be

understood more clearly by considering each ratio in turn.

Rp a . To interpret Rra the definition of a retransmitted acknowledgement

must be understood. An original AK TPDU must either acknowledge new

data, grant new permission to send data (i.e., credit), or reduce previously granted credit. Any other AK TPDU is a retransmi ssion . Retransmitted AK TPDUs are caused by expiration of a window timer on a quiescent half of a transport connection, expiration of a flow control synchronization timer, or receipt of an AK TPDU requiring flow control confirmation. Therefore, a high value for Rra can have several causes.

- 33 -
Since flow control confirmation rules were not used for the demonstration,

the most likely cause is expiration of the window timer. Window timer

expiration occurs only when AK TPDUs are not being sent to acknowledge

data (i.e., few DT TPDUs are being received). The rate of window timer

expiration is a function of the window timer period and the duration of

periods during which no DT TPDUs are received. Thus, Rra is normally

higher for a data source in a uni -di rectional file transfer. A good

example of this phenomenon is shown for Host A in Table 6 ( Rra = .41).

The low Rr/\ values for source Hosts E and I in Table 6 can only be

explained by a low rate of window timer expiration. This can be

attributed to a long window timer period or to the fact that the file

transfers involving Hosts E and I were of very short duration. The same

is true for Rr/\ for Host C in Table 7.

Rqa . To interpret Rqa recall the definition of an original AK TPDU from

the previous discussion. Since explicit credit reduction was not used

during the IMCC demonstration, original AK TPDUs were transmitted only to

acknowledge new data and to grant new credit. Normally new credit is

granted in the same AK TPDU that acknowledges new data and Roa tends

toward one (assuming no withholding of acknowledgements). However, an

implementation of taut flow control does not fit the normal pattern.

For example, consider a transport implementation that grants permission

to send one DT TPDU, acknowledges the DT TPDU with an AK TPDU that gives

no permission to send (i.e., closes the window), and then, after some

- 34-
time, issues a new AK TPDU that gives permission to send another DT TPDU.

Thus, two original AK TPDUs are sent for every original DT TPDU and Rqa

tends toward .50. This situation is illustrated in Table 7 where two

hosts from a single computer vendor are transferring files using taut

flow control. Enough original AK TPDUs are transferred to prevent

expiration of the window timer and, thus, Rra is low.

Another source of change in Rqa is the existence of host computers acting

as data sources on the network. This is illustrated by Host A in Table 6

where Rqa is 8.73. The cause of this high Rqa is that Host A is a source

for many DT TPDUs, but sends only enough original AK TPDUs to acknowledge

the file transfer protocol commands from the data sink. The remainder

of the AK TPDUs sent by Host A are retransmi ssi ons stimulated by expiration

of the window timer.

Rom. The ratio Rqm provides an indication of the CPU processing burden

required to transfer data messages. The burden is represented by the

total number of protocol messages requi red to transfer a set of protocol

data messages. Table 5 provides values for Rqm over a two hour period.

During the periods of highest Rqm» six overhead messages are required for

every four data messages. During the periods of lowest Rqm» three overhead

messages are required for each data message. For the entire two hour

period, two overhead messages were required for each data message.

Table 6 and 7 provide Rqm values for individual hosts during intervals 2

and 4 respectively. Two patterns of Rqm are evident. For five of the

- 35 -
Table 6 Host Metrics - Interval 2

Host r 0M r 0A r RA Mode

A .33 8.73 .41 Source

E .39 .90 .03 Source

F .33 .03 .02 Si nk

G .40 .62 .00 Sink

I .40 .90 .03 Source

Table 7 Host Metrics - Interval 4

Host r 0M r 0A r RA Mode

C .39 .51 • o

GO Source

D .39 .49 .04 Sink

- 36 -
hosts (E, G, I, C, and D), six overhead messages are required for every

four data messages. For Hosts A and F, two overhead messages are required

for every data message.

Average Data Block Size

The average data block size experienced over the two hour measurement

period varied between 60 bytes and 405 bytes as shown in Table 5.

Generally, the larger the DT TPDU data size, the greater the transport

protocol efficiency experienced. The DT TPDU data size variability

observed was due to the different implementation strategies adopted

by the vendors involved and differences in the format of data transferred

around the demonstration network ( e . g . , ASCII display files vs. graphics

output files).

V. Conclusions

Several conclusions can be drawn from the experiences and results reported

in this paper. First, many useful performance metrics at three levels

(link, network, and transport) of the OSI reference model can be obtained

without measurement artifact via a centralized monitoring device on a

local area network. The metrics accessible include throughput, channel

utilization and efficiency, protocol bandwidth efficiency, various

message ratios, and average message size. Delay metrics cannot be easily

calculated using the centralized monitoring approach without ma<ing

certain limiting assumptons or relying upon estimating techniques.

- 37 -
A second conclusion resulting from the work reported here is that protocol

bandwidth efficiency in a layered protocol system is diminished by each

protocol layer. In fact, the total protocol efficiency of the layered

system is the product of the protocol efficiency of each protocol layer.

This is a remarkable conclusion that has serious implications for the

design and implementation of layered systems of protocols.

A third conclusion is that the transport protocol message ratio metrics

described in this paper are of limited use when computed at the aggregate

level. At the host and connection levels, the inability of the measurement

subsystem to distinguish between the four roles of the AK TPDU within the

OSI class 4 transport protocol limits the interpretations that can be

made from the ratio metrics unless the performance analyst has certain a

priori knowledge about the characteristics of the transport implementations

using the network.

Finally, the OSI class 4 transport protocol can be implemented for

efficient operation over a local network. This conclusion is supported

by the protocol efficiency metrics reported. It appears that reasonable

efficiency was achieved given that many of the implementations were

prototypes. The results also demonstrate several means available for

improving the efficiency of the implementations.

VI . Acknowledgements

The prototype measurement system architecture was established by Robert

Rosenthal and Kevin Mills. The data collection subsystem was designed

- 38 -
and implemented by Robert Toense. The measurement subsystem was designed

by Kevin Mills and implemented by Kevin Mills and Jeff Gura. Porting of

the measurement subsystem to the NCC demonstration hardware was accomplished by Michael Chernick. The prototype analysis and display subsystem

was designed and implemented by Daniel Stokesberry, Timothy Gardner, and

Patrick Johnstone. The analysis and display subsystem used at the NCC

demonstration was designed and implemented by Daniel Stokesberry and

Timothy Gardner. Several other analysis and display programs were designed

and implemented by Kevin Mills and Jeff Gura.

References

[1] John D. Day and Hubert Zimmermann, "The OSI Reference Model,"

Proceedings of the IEEE , pp. 1334-1340, December 1983.

[2] Keith G. Knightson, "The Transport Layer Standardization," Proceedings of the IEEE , pp. 1394-1396, December 1983.

[3] Proceedings of the First LAN-Transport Workshop , Report No. NBSIR

83-2673, February 1983.

[4] Proceedings of the Second LAN-Transport Workshop , Report No. NBSIR

83-2717, May 1983.

[5] Proceedings of the Third LAN-Transport Workshop , Report No. NBSIR

83-2757, July 1983.

- 39 -
[6] Proceedings of the Fourth LAN-Transport Workshop , Report No. NBSIR

83-2796, October 1983.

[7] Proceedings of the Fifth LAN-Transport Workshop , Report No. 84-2855,

March 1984.

[8] Kevin Mills, "Testing OSI Protocols: NBS Advances the State-of-theArt," Data Communications , March 1984.

[9] R. Jerry Linn and J. Stephen Nightingale, "Testing OSI Protocols at the

National Bureau of Standards," Proceedings of the IEEE , pp. 1431

1434, December 1983.

[10] Marshall D. Abrams, et al ., Measurement of Computer Communications

Networks , Department of Commerce, July 1976.

[11] Marshall D. Abrams, et al., "The Network Measurement System," IEEE

Transactions on Communications , 1976.

[12] R. Rosenthal, et al.. The Network Measurement Machine — A Data

Collection Device for Measuring the Performance and Utilization

of Computer Networks , NBS Technical Note 912, April 1976.

[13] D.R. Wortendyke, et al., User-Oriented Performance Measurements on

the ARPANET, NTIA Report 82-112, November 1982.

- 40-
[14] H. Opderbeck and L. Kleinrock, "The Influence of Control Procedures

on the Performance of Packet-Switch Networks," Proceedings of the

National Telecommunications Conference , 1974.

[15] S.S. Poh, Comparison of PW IN and ARPANET Performance Measurement

Capabi 1 ities , Mitre Corporation, February 1975.

[16] C.J. Bennett and A.J. Hinchley, "Measurements of the Transmission

Control Protocol," Computer Network Protocols , University of Liege,

1978.

[17] MS-109 User Documentation , Volume 2, Tesdata Systems Corporation,

March 1980.

[18] Wayne H. McCoy, et al ., "Assessing the Performance of High-level

Computer Network Protocols," Proceedings of INWG/NPL Workshop

Protocol Testing - Towards Proof ?, National Physical Laboratory,

Teddington, England, 27-29 May, 1981.

[19] Kevin L. Mills, "Performance Measurement Problems in a Packet-Switch

Network," Proceedings of CMG XII Conference , December 1981.

[20] P.J. Lloyd and R.H. Cole, "A Comparative Study of Protocol Performance

on the Universe and SATNET Satellite System," Satellite and Computer

Communications, North-Hoi 1 and , 1983.
[21] K.S. Raghunathan, et al., "Relationship Between Performance Parameters

for Transport and Network Service," ACM SIGCOMM 83 Symposium

Proceedings , March 1983.

[22] Wushow Chou, "Analysis of Data/Computer Networks," Computer

Communications , Prentice-Hall, 1983.

[23] Mischa Schwartz, Computer-Communication Network Design and Analysis ,

Prentice-Hall, 1977.

[24] Fouad A. Tobagi , et al ., "Modeling and Measurement Techniques in

Packet Communications Networks", Proceedings of IEEE , November 1978.

[25] Wushow Chou, "Performance Metrics In The Transport Layer," unpublished

NBS Report, October 1982.

[26] Mamie Wheatly and Richard Colei la. Joint COMSAT/NBS Experiment

Plan, unpublished NBS Report, June 1983.

- 42 -
Figure List

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6

Measurement System Structure

. Structure of a Frame

Structure of a Transport Protocol Data Unit

Measurement System on an IEEE 802.3 LAN

Measurement System within a Host

Measurement Subsystem Off-line

- 43 -

NBS-114A irev, 2 -«c> U.S. DEPT. OF COMM.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA _

SHEET (See instructions)

1. PUBLICATION OR

REPORT NO.

NBSIR 85-3104

2. Performing Organ. Report No. 3. Publication Date

February 1985

4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE

Performance Measurement of OSI Class 4 Transport Implementations

5. AUTHOR(S)

K.L. Mills, J.W, Gura, C.M, Chernick

6 . PERFORMING ORGANIZATION (If joint or other than NBS, see instructions)

NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20234

7. Con traci/Grant No.

8. Type of Report & Period Covered

9. SPONSORING ORGANIZATION NAME AND COMPLETE ADDRESS (Street, City. Slate, ZIP)

10. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES

_ Document describes a computer program; SF-185, FlPS Software Summary, is attached.

11. ABSTRACT (A 200-word or less factual Summary of most significant information. If document includes a significant

bibliography or literature survey, mention it here)

A measurement system to evaluate the performance of open system interconnection (051

transport protocol implementations is described. Several metrics are proposed to

establish a quantitative characterization of layered protocol performance. Metrics

specific to the OSI transport protocol are also proposed. The measurement system

and metrics are applied to a ynulti -vendor National Computer Conference demonstration

network and the results are reported.

12. KEY WORDS (Six to twelve entries; alphabetical order; capitalize only proper names; and seporote key words t . itComputer Networks; Multi-vendor Networks; NCC Demonstration; OSI Transport;

Performance Measurement System; Protocol Performance

13. AVAILABILITY

1 y | Unlimited

| | For Official Distribution. Do Not Release to NTIS

| Order From Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402.

[ X| Order From National Technical Information Service (NTIS), Springfield, VA. 22161

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PRINTED PAGE!

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15. Pr.ci

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