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Iperf or Iperf like test points?

  • From: Walter C. Ames
  • Date: Wed Aug 24 14:11:07 2005


Initial caveat: If this is off topic please just let me know now and please suggest a good forum for this type of question/discussion.

The main premise of the question/discussion is the ability to establish/utilize random (or not so) test points (like looking glasses) scattered across the planet to gauge real time bandwidth performance on larger broadband connections.

Second caveat: I have done a bit a research trying to figure this out before posting and have had no luck to this point. If this topic has already been covered in depth or otherwise please advise.

With that said, the problem that I am facing is that there are no consistently reliable tools that NetOps (or end users for that matter) can use to truly evaluate bandwidth performance on large pipes.

Ex: All of the test sites that I have tried from a 100M/FD attached Linux box, riding a GigE backbone to multiple GigE transit lines typically yields BW test results in the 3-7Mbps range. Yet when I Iperf across the backbone I get more reasonable results of between 80-90Mbps TCP.

The extent of the problem is that I hand off 10M - GigE connections to my end users and they want a way to test it that is 'Off-Net'. My on-net test platforms give them great results, however since they are on-net the end users dismiss the results (thinking they are fixed I guess).

To date I have not found a reasonable method of accomplishing this.

Now with the understanding that bandwidth testing at these rates (or any rate for that matter) can prove to be a complete waste of bandwidth simply to give someone a warm and fuzzy, I am willing to let that one go on a case by case basis to simply make the end user happy.

That being said, is anyone on this list aware of such a formation of Iperf nodes across the net connected at GigE or better to accomplish this goal? If not I would be willing to start one and give up a server or two and some of my bandwidth to help others out who are probably experiencing (or have experienced) this type of problem in the past.

This issue is just burning up a lot of my tech supports time trying to educate the end users. I just feel that a cooperative effort that yields more accurate and consistent results may be a better way to approach this.

Thank you in advance.


____
o Walter C. Ames
o MDConnect Internet Services
o (410)290-8088 (phone) MD
o (410)290-8180 (fax)