RFC 3222 (rfc3222) - Page 3 of 15
Terminology for Forwarding Information Base (FIB) based Router Performance
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RFC 3222 FIB based Router Performance December 2001 2. Overview In order to measure the forwarding information base-based router performance, different forwarding information bases (5.3) are installed in the router. The two key elements describing the FIB are the FIB size (5.5) and FIB prefix distribution (5.7). The forwarding performance of a router may be dependent upon these two primary factors, particularly if FIB prefix distributions tend towards longer network prefixes (5.1). The FIB-dependent throughput, latency and frame loss rate (6.3, 6.4, 6.5), measured with fully meshed traffic flows [2], will reflect the change in performance of the router. Tests may need to be performed up to the maximum FIB size (6.1). When configuring the router for these measurements, the routes need to be manually entered into the router, or advertised via a routing protocol. It may take some period of time (the FIB learning time (6.2)) before the router learns all the routes. When routes are advertised into the router, the routes should be advertised in such a way so that route aggregation (5.10) does not occur. Also, the effect of a per-interface FIB cache (5.9) needs to be taken into account. 3. Existing Definitions [3] should be consulted before attempting to make use of this document. [2] contains discussions of a number of terms relevant to the benchmarking of network interconnect devices and should also be consulted. 4. Definition Format The definition format is the equivalent to that defined in [3], and is repeated here for convenience: X.x Term to be defined. (e.g., Latency) Definition: The specific definition for the term. Discussion: A brief discussion about the term, it's application and any restrictions on measurement procedures. Measurement units: The units used to report measurements of this term, if applicable. Trotter Informational
