Benchmarking Terminology for Protection Performance

Abstract

This document provides common terminology and metrics for benchmarking the performance of sub-IP layer protection mechanisms. The performance benchmarks are measured at the IP layer; protection may be provided at the sub-IP layer. The benchmarks and terminology can be applied in methodology documents for different sub-IP layer protection mechanisms such as Automatic Protection Switching (APS), Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP), Stateful High Availability (HA), and Multiprotocol Label Switching Fast Reroute (MPLS-FRR). Status of This Memo This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is published for informational purposes. This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has received public review and has been approved for publication by the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Not all documents approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741. Information about the current status of this document, any errata, and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6414.

Methodology for Benchmarking MPLS Traffic Engineered (MPLS-TE) Fast Reroute Protection

“…IP traffic would be rerouted according to the preferred path for the post-failure topology. Thus, MPLS-FRR may include additional steps following the occurrence of the failure detection and failover event [RFC6414].…”

“…(1) Type of protection (Link versus Node) (2) Number of remaining hops of the primary tunnel from the Point of Local Repair (PLR) [RFC6414] (3) Number of remaining hops of the backup tunnel from the PLR Due to this dependency, it is RECOMMENDED that the benchmarking of failover times be performed on all the topologies provided in Section 6. Ethernet-based links enabled with MPLS/IP do not have L2 failure indicators; therefore, they rely on L3 signaling for failure detection.…”

“…Currently, end customers use packet loss as a key metric for failover time [RFC6414]. Failover Packet Loss [RFC6414] is an externally observable event and has a direct impact on application performance.…”

“…Failover Packet Loss [RFC6414] is an externally observable event and has a direct impact on application performance. MPLS protection is expected to minimize packet loss in the event of a failure.…”

“…Path restoration [RFC6414] provides a method to restore an alternate primary LSP upon failure and to switch traffic from the backup path to the restored primary path (reversion). In MPLS-FRR, reversion [RFC6414] can be implemented as Global Reversion or Local Reversion.…”