Network Performance Index BoF

The Network Performance Index BoF formed for the first time during RIPE 26, which took place in Amsterdam, during January 1997.

There, Daniele Bovio presented a report on a BoF session that was held earlier during the RIPE Meeting. The BoF was held to see if it was possible to define an index that describes the performance of ISPs' networks. This index would be useful for:

• reporting to management
• comparing performances of networks without disclosing too many details
• help potential customers in comparing ISPs
• help negotiation of contracts

The basic parameters to define this index would be roundtrip time of IP packets, downtime of the network and packet loss. Daniele presented a formula for the index, which he indicated could be adjusted but that was not the purpose of this particular discussion. The question posed to the audience was if this plan was considered useful and should be pursued further.

There was a remark that there was also an IETF working group handling roughly the same topic.

RIPE Chair, Rob Blokzijl noted that the next step forward would be to see if there is enough support for this idea among the bigger ISPs. He mentioned that the NCC could set up a mailing list to discuss this topic. Daniele mentioned that also the formula for defining the index could be discussed there.

Daniel Karrenberg mentioned that the RIPE NCC has test traffic in its action plan, and these efforts might be combined in some way.