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taken the traditional concept of Layer 2 service level agreements and applied a broader scope to support
end-to-end performance measurement, including support of applications.
Figure 3: Scope of Traditional Service Level Agreement Versus IP SLA
This table lists the improvements with IP SLA over a traditional service level agreement.
Table 20: IP SLA Improvements over a Traditional Service Level Agreement
Description
Type of Improvement
The ability to measure performance from one end of
the network to the other allows a broader reach and
more accurate representation of the end-user
experience.
End-to-end measurements
Statistics, such as delay, jitter, packet sequence, Layer
3 connectivity, and path and download time, that are
divided into bidirectional and round-trip numbers
provide more data than just the bandwidth of a Layer
2 link.
Sophistication
Applications that are sensitive to slight changes in
network performance require the precision of the
submillisecond measurement of IP SLA.
Accuracy
Leveraging the existing Cisco devices in a large
network makes IP SLA easier to implement than the
physical operations that are often required with
traditional service level agreements.
Ease of deployment
IP SLA can simulate and measure performance
statistics generated by applications running over Layer
3 through Layer 7. Traditional service level
agreements can measure only Layer 2 performance.
Application-aware monitoring
IP SLA support exists in Cisco networking devices
ranging from low-end to high-end routers and
switches. This wide range of deployment gives IP
SLA more flexibility over traditional service level
agreements.
Pervasiveness
Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Router System Monitoring Configuration Guide, Release 4.2.x
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Implementing IP Service Level Agreements
Service Level Agreements