Network Measurements

When designing networks it's very important to have accurate data of the traffic on them. Depending on the configuration, different tools can be used to measure the load of a network: for example HPOpenView, snmpwalk/get, MRTG, STG,  NAI Sniffer, etc. You need to familiarize yourself with the measurement tools. You need to gather network measurements that characterize the behavior of the network so that you can use it for your project. In particular you need to use them in your analysis and simulation to characterize the background traffic. Depending on your assigned project the type of measurements of interest would be different, and it depends on your architecture and service you are adding to the network.  Try to keep measurements simple.

Each group is required to generate statistics and graphical illustrations of the gathered measurements.  Examples of these representations can be found in the example reports at http://www.esat.kuleuven.ac.be/~h239/reports.htm

 

Measurement Tools

Of the proposed software, some are more suitable to check the configuration, others to do the measurements.  The recommended ones for for our projects are GetIF, STG, and MRTG.  You may find these tools are also helpful:
  • Windows 200 Network Monitor.  This is similar to Ethereal, however, with nice graphs.  It is available on all lab machines.  Do start/Administrative Tools/Network Monitor
  • HPOpenView is a commercial product and we will attempt to make it available for use in the lab.
  • ping
  • tracert for NT, or traceroute for Unix
  • tcpdump: traces all packets on the segment (manual, ready for printer).
  • netperf & netserver: measures the capacity of a connection. These links will lead you to the homepage, download spot and man pages of netperf and netserver. Be aware of the fact that your results are influenced if two or more users run netperf at the same time on the same machine.