RFC 2889 (rfc2889) - Page 1 of 35
Benchmarking Methodology for LAN Switching Devices
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group R. Mandeville
Request for Comments: 2889 CQOS Inc.
Category: Informational J. Perser
Spirent Communications
August 2000
Benchmarking Methodology for LAN Switching Devices
Status of this Memo
This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does
not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this
memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2000). All Rights Reserved.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3. Test setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
4. Frame formats and sizes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
5. Benchmarking Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
5.1 Fully meshed throughput, frame loss and forwarding rates 4
5.2 Partially meshed one-to-many/many-to-one . . . . . . . . 7
5.3 Partially meshed multiple devices . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
5.4 Partially meshed unidirectional traffic . . . . . . . . . 13
5.5 Congestion Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
5.6 Forward Pressure and Maximum Forwarding Rate . . . . . . 19
5.7 Address caching capacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
5.8 Address learning rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
5.9 Errored frames filtering. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
5.10 Broadcast frame Forwarding and Latency . . . . . . . . . 28
6. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
7. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
8. Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Appendix A: Formulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Appendix B: Generating Offered Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Full Copyright Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Mandeville & Perser Informational
