Foundry NetIron M2404C and M2404F Metro Access Switches
Network Administration Tools (Rev. 03)
Response Time Reporter (RTR)
© 2008 Foundry Networks, Inc.
Page 123 of 155
Figure 24
demonstrates a designated device running SA Agent to monitor the network. Solid lines
indicate physical links and dashed lines indicate examples for monitored SLOs. In this example, a
single SA Agent monitors the whole enterprise network in order not to overload existing switching
and routing devices.
Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) Response Time
The Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) Echo operation measures end-to-end response time
between a router and devices using IP. ICMP is a network layer Internet Protocol (IP) that reports
errors and provides other information relevant to IP packet processing. Response time is computed
by measuring the time from the instant an ICMP echo request message is sent to the destination
until an ICMP echo reply is received.
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) Connection
The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) Connection operation is used to discover the time it
takes to connect to the target device. This operation can be used to test virtual circuit availability or
application availability.
User Datagram Protocol (UDP) Echo Response Time
The User Datagram Protocol (UDP) Echo operation calculates UDP response times between a
router and any IP enabled device. The response time is computed by measuring the time between
sending a datagram and receiving a response from the destination device.
Scheduling Test Execution
The RTR mechanism can be configured to schedule specific test series in advance. In this mode,
tests may be scheduled in advance for more than 18 hours.
Each test may be repeated up to 15 times or without restriction in order to aggregate the test results
over the large time period to achieve a wide range of samples.
Each device may be configured to perform a large number of tests (10 concurrent tests by default.
This number may be increased to 50 concurrent tests). However, it must be noted that if a large
number of tests is defined in short intervals, the test results will indicate high network congestions.
Related Features
•
MEF OAM supported by the switches allows SLA monitoring mechanisms in an Ethernet-only
environment without the need for an IP stack, to provide reliable monitoring of Ethernet
Services.
•
CLI Ping and Traceroute utilities provide the ability for command line connectivity testing and
DNS functionality validation.
•
The application software implements the following echo services which may be used by RTR
to perform network testing:
o
UDP Echo Server
o
TCP Echo Server.