New Ethernet test standards and procedures address changing network traffic

Network traffic requirements have diversified in recent years, transitioning from data centric to very mixed, with much more importance placed on real-time applications such as video and voice. The fact that network elements buffer traffic raises concerns about the potential effects on such real-time applications across the full network, especially if they are poorly implemented.

In most cases, the line rate of the data pipe can be increased to match future customer requirements. Service providers usually limit the transmission rate or police the link based on a service level agreement (SLA) or by contract terms. Most service providers limit customer traffic rates at the network ingress and egress points.

Service providers also can offer different Ethernet classes of service, usually via virtual local area networks (VLANs) or differentiated services code point (DSCP). Some service providers are starting to consider burst traffic for different durations, though this type of implementation isn’t common in today’s Ethernet networks.

With the combination of changing end-user traffic profiles (including multiple frame sizes) and streams that require different traffic priorities through the network, service providers discovered some shortcomings in the RFC 2544 standard. Many service providers also expect that they will require the network to offer a per-stream traffic policing capabilities, not a less complicated rate-limited model. Service providers therefore have significant interest in testing multiple traffic streams simultaneously to confirm the policing per stream, validate the transfer time and jitter across the network, and ensure the network can manage bursts of traffic for short durations.

October 7, 2011

Continue