Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) A. Morton
Request for Comments: 7497 AT&T Labs
Category: Informational April 2015
ISSN: 2070-1721
Rate Measurement Test Protocol Problem Statement and Requirements
Abstract
This memo presents a problem statement for access rate measurement
for test protocols to measure IP Performance Metrics (IPPM). Key
rate measurement test protocol aspects include the ability to control
packet characteristics on the tested path, such as asymmetric rate
and asymmetric packet size.
Status of This Memo
This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
published for informational purposes.
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). Not all documents
approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
Standard; see 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/rfc7497.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2015 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
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the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
described in the Simplified BSD License.
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RFC 7497 Rate Problem Statement April 2015
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.1. Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Purpose and Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. Active Rate Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4. Measurement Method Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5. Test Protocol Control and Generation Requirements . . . . . . 9
6. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
7. Operational Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
8. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
8.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
8.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1. Introduction
There are many possible rate measurement scenarios. This memo
describes one rate measurement problem and presents a rate
measurement problem statement for test protocols to measure IP
Performance Metrics (IPPM).
When selecting a form of access to the Internet, subscribers are
interested in the performance characteristics of the various
alternatives. Standardized measurements can be a basis for
comparison between these alternatives. There is an underlying need
to coordinate measurements that support such comparisons and to test
control protocols to fulfill this need. The figure below depicts
some typical measurement points of access networks.
User /====== Fiber ======= Access Node \
Device -|------ Copper ------- Access Node -|-- Infrastructure -- GW
or Host \------ Radio ------- Access Node /
GW = Gateway
The access rate scenario or use case has received widespread
attention of Internet-access subscribers and seemingly all Internet-
industry players, including regulators. This problem is being
approached with many different measurement methods. The eventual
protocol solutions to this problem (and the systems that utilize the
protocol) may not directly involve users, such as when tests reach
from the infrastructure to a service-specific device, such as a
residential gateway. However, no aspect of the problem precludes
users from developing a test protocol controlled via command line
Morton Informational [Page 2]RFC 7497 Rate Problem Statement April 2015
interfaces on both ends. Thus, a very wide range of test protocols,
active measurement methods, and system solutions are the possible
outcomes of this problem statement.
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 [RFC2119].
2. Purpose and Scope
The scope and purpose of this memo is to define the measurement
problem statement for test protocols conducting access rate
measurement on production networks. Relevant test protocols include
[RFC4656] and [RFC5357], but the problem is stated in a general way
so that it can be addressed by any existing test protocol, such as
[RFC6812].
This memo discusses possible measurement methods but does not specify
exact methods that would normally be part of the solution.
We are interested in access measurement scenarios with the following
characteristics:
o The access portion of the network is the focus of this problem
statement. The user typically subscribes to a service with
bidirectional access partly described by rates in bits per second.
The rates may be expressed as raw capacity or restricted capacity,
as described in [RFC6703]. These are the quantities that must be
measured according to one or more standard metrics and for which
measurement methods must also be agreed on as a part of the
solution.
o Referring to the reference path illustrated below and defined in
[RFC7398], possible measurement points include a subscriber's
host, the access service demarcation point, intra IP access (where
a globally routable address is present), or the gateway between
the measured access network and other networks.
Subsc. -- Private -- Private -- Access -- Intra IP -- GRA -- Transit
device Net #1 Net #2 Demarc. Access GW GRA GW
GRA = Globally Routable Address, GW = Gateway
o Rates at some links near the edge of the provider's network can
often be several orders of magnitude less than link rates in the
aggregation and core portions of the network.
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o Asymmetrical access rates on ingress and egress are prevalent.
o In many scenarios of interest, services of extremely large-scale
access require low-complexity devices participating at the user
end of the path, and those devices place limits on clock and
control timing accuracy.
This problem statement assumes that the most likely bottleneck device
or link is adjacent to the remote (user-end) measurement device or is
within one or two router/switch hops of the remote measurement
device.
Other use cases for rate measurement involve situations where the
packet switching and transport facilities are leased by one operator
from another, and the link capacity available cannot be directly
determined (e.g., from device-interface utilization). These
scenarios could include mobile backhaul, Ethernet service access
networks, and/or extensions of layer 2 or layer 3 networks. The
results of rate measurements in such cases could be employed to
select alternate routing, investigate whether capacity meets some
previous agreement, and/or adapt the rate of traffic sources if a
capacity bottleneck is found via the rate measurement. In the case
of aggregated leased networks, available capacity may also be
asymmetric. In these cases, the tester is assumed to have a sender
and receiver location under their control. We refer to this scenario
below as the aggregated leased-network case.
This memo describes protocol support for active measurement methods
consistent with the IPPM working group's traditional charter. Active
measurements require synthetic traffic streams dedicated to testing
and do not make measurements on user traffic. See Section 2 of
[RFC2679], where the concept of a stream is first introduced in IPPM
literature as the basis for collecting a sample (defined in
Section 11 of [RFC2330]).
As noted in [RFC2330], the focus of access traffic management may
influence the rate measurement results for some forms of access, as
it may differ between user and test traffic if the test traffic has
different characteristics, primarily in terms of the packets
themselves (see Section 13 of [RFC2330] for the considerations on
packet type, or Type-P).
There are several aspects of Type-P where user traffic may be
examined and selected for special treatment that may affect
transmission rates. Various aspects of Type-P are known to influence
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Equal-Cost Multipath (ECMP) routing with possible rate measurement
variability across parallel paths. Without being exhaustive, the
possibilities include:
o Packet length
o IP addresses
o Transport protocol (e.g., where TCP packets may be routed
differently from UDP)
o Transport-protocol port numbers
This issue requires further discussion when specific solutions/
methods of measurement are proposed; for this problem statement, it
is sufficient to identify the problem and indicate that the solution
may require an extremely close emulation of user traffic, in terms of
one or more factors above.
Although the user may have multiple instances of network access
available to them, the primary problem scope is to measure one form
of access at a time. It is plausible that a solution for the single
access problem will be applicable to simultaneous measurement of
multiple access instances, but treatment of this scenario is beyond
the current scope this document.
A key consideration is whether or not active measurements will be
conducted with user traffic present. In-Service testing takes place
with user traffic present. Out-of-Service testing occurs during pre-
service assessment or during maintenance that interrupts service
temporarily. Out-of-Service testing includes activities described as
"service commissioning", "service activation", and "planned
maintenance". Opportunistic In-Service testing (when there is no
user traffic present throughout the test interval, such as outside
normal business hours) is essentially equivalent to Out-of-Service
testing. Both In-Service and Out-of-Service testing are within the
scope of this problem.
It is a non-goal to solve the measurement protocol specification
problem in this memo.
It is a non-goal to standardize methods of measurement in this memo.
However, the problem statement mandates support for one category of
rate measurement methods in the test protocol and adequate control
features for the methods in the control protocol (assuming the
control and test protocols are separate).
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3. Active Rate Measurement
This section lists features of active measurement methods needed to
measure access rates in production networks.
Coordination between source and destination devices through control
messages and other basic capabilities described in the methods of
IPPM RFCs [RFC2679] [RFC2680], and assumed for test protocols such as
[RFC5357] and [RFC4656], are taken as given.
Most forms of active testing intrude on user performance to some
degree, especially In-Service testing. One key tenet of IPPM methods
is to minimize test traffic effects on user traffic in the production
network. Section 5 of [RFC2680] lists the problems with high
measurement traffic rates ("too much" traffic); the most relevant for
rate measurement is the tendency for measurement traffic to skew the
results, followed by the possibility of introducing congestion on the
access link. Section 4 of [RFC3148] provides additional
considerations. The user of protocols for In-Service testing MUST
respect these traffic constraints. Obviously, categories of rate
measurement methods that use less active test traffic than others
with similar accuracy are preferred for In-Service testing, and the
specifications of this memo encourage traffic reduction through
asymmetric control capabilities.
Out-of-Service tests where the test path shares no links with In-
Service user traffic, have none of the congestion or skew concerns.
Both types should address practical matters common to all test
efforts, such as conducting measurements within a reasonable time
from the tester's point of view and ensuring that timestamp accuracy
is consistent with the precision needed for measurement [RFC2330].
Out-of-Service tests where some part of the test path is shared with
In-Service traffic MUST respect the In-Service constraints described
above.
The intended metrics to be measured have strong influence over the
categories of measurement methods required. For example, using the
terminology of [RFC5136], it may be possible to measure a path
capacity metric while In-Service if the level of background (user)
traffic can be assessed and included in the reported result.
The measurement architecture MAY be either of one-way (e.g.,
[RFC4656]) or two-way (e.g., [RFC5357]), but the scale and complexity
aspects of end-user or aggregated access measurement clearly favor
two-way (with a low-complexity user-end device and round-trip results
collection, as found in [RFC5357]). However, the asymmetric rates of
many access services mean that the measurement system MUST be able to
evaluate performance in each direction of transmission. In the two-
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way architecture, both end devices MUST include the ability to launch
test streams and collect the results of measurements in both (one-
way) directions of transmission (this requirement is consistent with
previous protocol specifications, and it is not a unique problem for
rate measurements).
The following paragraphs describe features for the roles of test
packet SENDER, RECEIVER, and results REPORTER.
SENDER:
Generate streams of test packets with various characteristics as
desired (see Section 4). The SENDER MAY be located at the user end
of the access path or elsewhere in the production network, such as at
one end of an aggregated leased-network segment.
RECEIVER:
Collect streams of test packets with various characteristics (as
described above), and make the measurements necessary to support rate
measurement at the receiving end of an access or aggregated leased-
network segment.
REPORTER:
Use information from test packets and local processes to measure
delivered packet rates and prepare results in the required format
(the REPORTER role may be combined with another role, most likely the
SENDER).
4. Measurement Method Categories
A protocol that addresses the rate measurement problem MUST serve the
test stream generation and measurement functions (SENDER and
RECEIVER). The follow-up phase of analyzing the measurement results
to produce a report is outside the scope of this problem and memo
(REPORTER).
For the purposes of this problem statement, we categorize the many
possibilities for rate measurement stream generation as follows:
1. Packet pairs, with fixed intra-pair packet spacing and fixed or
random time intervals between pairs in a test stream.
2. Multiple streams of packet pairs, with a range of intra-pair
spacing and inter-pair intervals.
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3. One or more packet ensembles in a test stream, using a fixed
ensemble size in packets and one or more fixed intra-ensemble
packet spacings (including zero spacing, meaning that back-to-
back burst ensembles and constant rate ensembles fall in this
category).
4. One or more packet chirps (a set of packets with specified
characteristics), where inter-packet spacing typically decreases
between adjacent packets in the same chirp and each pair of
packets represents a rate for testing purposes.
The test protocol SHALL support test packet ensemble generation
(category 3), as this appears to minimize the demands on measurement
accuracy. Other stream generation categories are OPTIONAL.
For all supported categories, the following is a list of additional
variables that the protocol(s) MUST be able to specify, control, and
generate:
a. variable payload lengths among packet streams;
b. variable length (in packets) among packet streams or ensembles;
c. variable IP header markings among packet streams;
d. choice of UDP transport and variable port numbers, or choice of
TCP transport and variable port numbers for two-way architectures
only, or both (see below for additional requirements on TCP
transport generation); and
e. variable number of packet pairs, ensembles, or streams used in a
test session.
The ability to revise these variables during an established test
session is OPTIONAL, as multiple test sessions could serve the same
purpose. Another OPTIONAL feature is the ability to generate streams
with VLAN tags and other markings.
For measurement systems employing TCP as the transport protocol, the
ability to generate specific stream characteristics requires a sender
with the ability to establish and prime the connection such that the
desired stream characteristics are allowed. See [IPPM-METRICS] for
more background.
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Beyond a simple connection handshake and the options establishment,
an "open-loop" TCP sender requires the SENDER ability to:
o generate TCP packets with well-formed headers (all fields valid),
including Acknowledgement aspects;
o produce packet streams at controlled rates and variable inter-
packet spacings, including packet ensembles (back-to-back at
server rate); and
o continue the configured sending stream characteristics despite all
control indications except receive-window exhaust.
The corresponding TCP RECEIVER performs normally, having some ability
to configure the receive window sufficiently large so as to allow the
SENDER to transmit at will (up to a configured target).
It may also be useful (for diagnostic purposes) to provide a control
for the bulk transfer capacity measurement with fully-specified (and
congestion-controlled) TCP senders and receivers, as envisioned in
[RFC3148], but this would be a brute-force assessment, which does not
follow the conservative tenets of IPPM measurement [RFC2330].
Measurements for each UDP test packet transferred between SENDER and
RECEIVER MUST be compliant with the singleton measurement methods
described in IPPM RFCs [RFC2679][RFC2680]. The timestamp information
or loss/arrival status for each packet MUST be available for
communication to the REPORTER function.
5. Test Protocol Control and Generation Requirements
In summary, the test protocol must support the measurement features
described in the sections above. This requires:
1. Communicating all test variables to the SENDER and RECEIVER;
2. Results collection in a one-way architecture;
3. Remote device control for both one-way and two-way architectures;
and
4. Asymmetric packet rates in a two-way measurement architecture, or
coordinated one-way test capabilities with the same effect
(asymmetric rates may be achieved through directional control of
packet rate or packet size).
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The ability to control and generate asymmetric rates in a two-way
architecture is REQUIRED. Two-way architectures are RECOMMENDED to
include control and generation capability for both asymmetric and
symmetric packet sizes because packet size often matters in the scope
of this problem and test systems SHOULD be equipped to detect
directional size dependency through comparative measurements.
Asymmetric packet size control is indicated when the result of a
measurement may depend on the size of the packets used in each
direction, i.e., when any of the following conditions hold:
o there is a link in the path with asymmetrical capacity in opposite
directions (in combination with one or more of the conditions
below, but their presence or specific details may be unknown to
the tester);
o there is a link in the path that aggregates (or divides) packets
into link-level frames and may have a capacity that depends on
packet size, rate, or timing;
o there is a link in the path where transmission in one direction
influences performance in the opposite direction;
o there is a device in the path where transmission capacity depends
on packet header processing capacity (in other words, the capacity
is sensitive to packet size);
o the target application stream is nominally MTU size packets in one
direction versus ACK stream in the other (noting that there are a
vanishing number of symmetrical rate application streams for which
rate measurement is wanted or interesting but such streams might
have some relevance at this time);
o the distribution of packet losses is critical to rate assessment;
and possibly other circumstances revealed by measurements comparing
streams with symmetrical size and asymmetrical size.
Implementations may support control and generation for only symmetric
packet sizes when none of the above conditions hold.
The test protocol SHOULD enable measurement of the capacity metric
[RFC5136] either Out-of-Service, In-Service, or both; other metrics
[RFC5136] are OPTIONAL.
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6. Security Considerations
The security considerations that apply to any active measurement of
live networks are relevant here as well. See [RFC4656] and
[RFC5357].
Privacy considerations for measurement systems, particularly when
Internet users participate in the tests in some way, are described in
[LMAP-FRAMEWORK].
There may be a serious issue if a proprietary service level agreement
involved with the access network segment provider were somehow leaked
in the process of rate measurement. To address this, test protocols
SHOULD NOT convey this information in a way that could be discovered
by unauthorized parties.
7. Operational Considerations
All forms of testing originate network traffic, either through their
communications for control and results collection, from dedicated
measurement packet streams, or from a combination of both types of
traffic. Testing traffic primarily falls in one of two categories:
subscriber traffic or network management traffic. There is an
ongoing need to engineer networks so that various forms of traffic
are adequately served, and publication of this memo does not change
this need. Service subscribers and authorized users SHOULD obtain
their network operator's or service provider's permission before
conducting tests. Likewise, a service provider or third party SHOULD
obtain the subscriber's permission to conduct tests, since they might
temporarily reduce service quality. The protocol SHOULD communicate
the permission status once the overall system has obtained it, either
explicitly or through other means.
Subscribers, their service providers and network operators, and
sometimes third parties, all seek to measure network performance.
Capacity testing with active traffic often affects the packet
transfer performance of streams traversing shared components of the
test path, to some degree. The degradation can be minimized by
scheduling such tests infrequently and restricting the amount of
measurement traffic required to assess capacity metrics. As a
result, occasional short-duration estimates with minimal traffic are
preferred to measurements based on frequent file transfers of many
megabytes with similar accuracy. New measurement methodologies
intended for standardization should be evaluated individually for
potential operational issues. However, the scheduled frequency of
testing is as important as the methods used (and schedules are not
typically submitted for standardization).
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The new test protocol feature of asymmetrical packet size generation
in two-way testing is recommended in this memo. It can appreciably
reduce the load and packet processing demands of each test and
therefore reduce the likelihood of degradation in one direction of
the tested path. Current IETF standardized test protocols (e.g.,
[RFC5357] and [RFC6812]) do not possess the asymmetric size
generation capability with two-way testing.
8. References
8.1. Normative References
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997,
<http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.
[RFC2330] Paxson, V., Almes, G., Mahdavi, J., and M. Mathis,
"Framework for IP Performance Metrics", RFC 2330, May
1998, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2330>.
[RFC2679] Almes, G., Kalidindi, S., and M. Zekauskas, "A One-way
Delay Metric for IPPM", RFC 2679, September 1999,
<http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2679>.
[RFC2680] Almes, G., Kalidindi, S., and M. Zekauskas, "A One-way
Packet Loss Metric for IPPM", RFC 2680, September 1999,
<http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2680>.
[RFC4656] Shalunov, S., Teitelbaum, B., Karp, A., Boote, J., and M.
Zekauskas, "A One-way Active Measurement Protocol
(OWAMP)", RFC 4656, September 2006,
<http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4656>.
[RFC5357] Hedayat, K., Krzanowski, R., Morton, A., Yum, K., and J.
Babiarz, "A Two-Way Active Measurement Protocol (TWAMP)",
RFC 5357, October 2008,
<http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5357>.
[RFC6703] Morton, A., Ramachandran, G., and G. Maguluri, "Reporting
IP Network Performance Metrics: Different Points of View",
RFC 6703, August 2012,
<http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6703>.
Morton Informational [Page 12]RFC 7497 Rate Problem Statement April 2015
8.2. Informative References
[IPPM-METRICS]
Mathis, M. and A. Morton, "Model Based Bulk Performance
Metrics", Work in Progress, draft-ietf-ippm-model-based-
metrics-04, March 2015.
[LMAP-FRAMEWORK]
Eardley, P., Morton, A., Bagnulo, M., Burbridge, T.,
Aitken, P., and A. Akhter, "A framework for Large-Scale
Measurement of Broadband Performance (LMAP)", Work in
Progress, draft-ietf-lmap-framework-12, March 2015.
[RFC3148] Mathis, M. and M. Allman, "A Framework for Defining
Empirical Bulk Transfer Capacity Metrics", RFC 3148, July
2001, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3148>.
[RFC5136] Chimento, P. and J. Ishac, "Defining Network Capacity",
RFC 5136, February 2008,
<http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5136>.
[RFC6812] Chiba, M., Clemm, A., Medley, S., Salowey, J., Thombare,
S., and E. Yedavalli, "Cisco Service-Level Assurance
Protocol", RFC 6812, January 2013,
<http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6812>.
[RFC7398] Bagnulo, M., Burbridge, T., Crawford, S., Eardley, P., and
A. Morton, "A Reference Path and Measurement Points for
Large-Scale Measurement of Broadband Performance", RFC
7398, February 2015,
<http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7398>.
Acknowledgements
Dave McDysan provided comments and text for the aggregated leased use
case. Yaakov Stein suggested many considerations to address,
including the In-Service vs. Out-of-Service distinction and its
implication on test traffic limits and protocols. Bill Cerveny,
Marcelo Bagnulo, Kostas Pentikousis (a persistent reviewer), and
Joachim Fabini have contributed insightful, clarifying comments that
made this a better document. Barry Constantine also provided
suggestions for clarification.
Morton Informational [Page 13]RFC 7497 Rate Problem Statement April 2015
Author's Address
Al Morton
AT&T Labs
200 Laurel Avenue South
Middletown, NJ 07748
United States
Phone: +1 732 420 1571
Fax: +1 732 368 1192
EMail: acmorton@att.com
URI: http://home.comcast.net/~acmacm/
Morton Informational [Page 14]
