A modified charter has been submitted for the IP Performance Metrics
(ippm) working group in the Transport Area of the IETF. The IESG has not
made any determination as yet. The modified charter is provided below for
informational purposes only. Please send your comments to the IESG
mailing list (iesg@ietf.org) by Wednesday, January 21, 2009.
IP Performance Metrics (ippm)
--------------------------------------------
Last Modified: 2008-12-19
Current Status: Active Working Group
Additional information is available at tools.ietf.org/wg/ippm
Chair(s):
Matthew Zekauskas [matt@internet2.edu]
Henk Uijterwaal [henk@ripe.net]
Transport Area Director(s):
Magnus Westerlund magnus.westerlund@ericsson.com]
Lars Eggert [lars.eggert@nokia.com]
Transport Area Advisor:
Lars Eggert [lars.eggert@nokia.com]
Mailing Lists:
General Discussion: ippm@ietf.org
To Subscribe: https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ippm
In Body: subscribe
Archive: http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/ippm/index.html
Description of Working Group:
The IPPM WG has developed a set of standard metrics that can be
applied to the quality, performance, and reliability of Internet
data delivery services. These metrics are designed such that they
can be performed by network operators, end users, or independent
testing groups. It is important that the metrics not represent a
value judgment (i.e. define "good" and "bad"), but rather provide
unbiased quantitative measures of performance.
Functions peripheral to Internet data delivery services, such as
NOC/NIC services, are beyond the scope of this working group.
The IPPM WG has produced documents that define specific metrics and
procedures for accurately measuring and documenting these metrics.
This is the current list of fundamental metrics and the existing
set of derived metrics.
- connectivity
- one-way delay and loss
- round-trip delay.
- delay variation
- loss patterns
- packet reordering
- bulk transport capacity
- link bandwidth capacity
- packet duplication
The working group will advance these metrics along the standards
track within the IETF. It will be guided by applicable IESG documents
in this area. Additionally, the WG will produce Proposed Standard
AS documents, comparable to applicability statements in RFC 2026,
that will focus on procedures for measuring the individual metrics
and how these metrics characterize features that are important to
different service classes, such as bulk transport, periodic streams,
packet bursts or multimedia streams. Each AS document will discuss
the performance characteristics that are pertinent to a specified
service class; clearly identify the set of metrics that aid in the
description of those characteristics; specify the methodologies
required to collect said metrics; and lastly, present the requirements
for the common, unambiguous reporting of testing results. The AS
documents can also discuss the use of the metrics to verify performance
expectations, such as SLA's, report results to specific user groups
or investigate network problems. The focus is, again, to define
how this should be done, not to define a value judgment. The WG may
define additional statistics for its metrics if needed. Specific
topics of these AS documents must be approved by the Area Directors
as charter additions.
The WG will work on documents describing how to compose and decompose
the results of its metrics over time or space.
The WG has produced protocols to enable communication among test
equipment that implements the one- and two-way metrics (OWAMP and
TWAMP respectively). OWAMP and TWAMP will be advanced along the
standards track. Further development of these protocols will also
be done inside the WG.
The metrics developed by the WG were developed inside an active
measurement context, that is, the devices used to measure the metrics
produce their own traffic. However, most metrics can be used inside
a passive context as well. No work is planned is this area though,
this may be changed with AD approval.
The intent of the WG is to cooperate with other appropriate standards
bodies and forums (such as ATIS IIF, ITU-T SG 12, 13 and 15, MEF)
to promote consistent approaches and metrics. Within the IETF
process, IPPM metrics definitions will be subject to as rigorous a
scrutiny for usefulness, clarity, and accuracy as other protocol
standards. The IPPM WG will interact with other areas of IETF
activity whose scope intersect with the requirement of these specific
metrics. The WG will, on request, provide input to other IETF WG
on the use of these metrics.
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