Minutes of Test Traffic Working Group at RIPE49

["Henk Uijterwaal (RIPE NCC)" <]

Comments to the list, please.  Henk.




Minutes of Test Traffic Working Group at RIPE49
================================================

Location: Renaissance Hotel, Manchester, UK.
Chair(s): First Session - Henk Uijterwaal, Second Session - Alex Tudor
Scribe: Matthew Williams
Jabber: Willem-Jan Goudsblom

The presentations are online at
http://www.ripe.net/ripe/meetings/ripe-49/presentations/#tt

The RIPE 49 Webcast Archives can be found at
http://www.ripe.net/ripe/meetings/ripe-49/sessions-archive.html


Session 1
---------
Date: Thursday, 23rd of September, 2004
Time: 09.00 - 10.30

A. Administrative Matters

- 09:05:08 -

The session was formally opened, followed by a few welcoming words from the chair. After a short introduction and some ceremonious
agenda-bashing, the minutes from the previous RIPE meeting were approved and the participants' list was circulated among attendees
without further ado.

B. Presentations

- 09:08:33 -

1. "Modeling of end-to-end delays using Weibull-distribution mixtures"
   Jose Hernandez & Iain Phillips, Computer Science, Loughborough University, UK

Comments:

Q: Did you try to relate the different modes inside your mixtures of Weibull distributions, because each mode might be related to
the state of the network?
A: No, not yet. That is the next step; establishing what the mix of distributions means. We also need to find out what the optimal
number of distributions is.
Q: The Weibull distribution has many parameters, wouldn't another model be better?
A: It only has two parameters, and we think it is a good model that indeed relates to performance somehow. These parameters really
do reflect performance of a link.

- 09:34:38 -

2. The "Metropolis" Project
   Kave Salamatian, University Pierre and Marie Curie-LIP6, France

Comments:

Q: What did you miss on RIPE NCC test boxes?
A: No problems, they are very good measurement probes. However, management doesn't scale well in large networks. The main advantage
of the TTM project was its flexibilty when 'embedding' it into another architecture. Research and operations have different needs.

- 10:14:26 -

3. TTM Status Update
   Henk Uijterwaal, RIPE NCC

Comments:

Q: [Slides #15] At which forums were g/ccTLDs approached?
A: At a few different ones, e.g. the CENTR meeting.
Q: Metropolis have developed framework for monitoring, partly focusing on a more accurate alarm system. We should probably share
ideas.
A: Great idea. Please send me some pointers.

- 10:37:02 -


Session 2
---------
Date: Thursday, 23rd of September, 2004
Time: 11:00 - 12.30

B. Presentations (continued)

- 11:02:51 -

4. �SMARTxAC�: A passive monitoring and analysis system for high-speed links
   Pere Barlet & Jordi Domingo-Pascual, Universitat Polit�cnica de Catalunya, BARCELONA Catalunya (Spain)

Comments:

Q: Does your system automatically understand traffic; for instance, interpreting dynamic ports during the initialisation of
connections?
A: No, ports need to be configured manually.

- 11:32:40 -

5. "CoMo", The Open Monitoring Infrastructure Project
   Gianluca Iannaccone, Intel Labs, Cambridge, UK

Comments:

Q: It is great that Intel are interested in building a monitoring platform, saves reseachers from doing it.
A: Reseachers are more interested in analysis. We want to build a modular system, where the modules can easily be written and
integrated into the monitoring platform.
Q: What is Intel's business model for this project?
A: Firstly, we need 'buy in' from the community. Peer review and information exchange are essential when building an IDS or similar.
Secondly, there are many start-ups in the field and Intel needs to be at the forefront of developments. The important question is
the abilities of a 'network processor'; what primitives should it look at, what should be provided, and how can the design be
optimised?

- 12:02:13 -

6. 6QM Solution for IPv6 QoS Measurements
   Jordi Palet Martinez, ConsulIntel, Spain

Comments:

Q: What is the scalability on 'plain vanilla' hardware? How many flows can be monitored?
A: There hasn't been extensive testing and analysis on these aspects. Sadly, we don't have a system for generating flows. 40-50 one
megabit flows shouldn't be a problem though.
Q: Have you compared your project with commercial platforms?
A: There weren't any when we started. We would like to work with these new vendors though. Furthermore, we have been very active
within the standarisation process through the IETF; there are several drafts published.
Q: Is your platform able to use a offline trace gatherer that can be replayed, and then do calculations based on these historical
captures?
A: This is something that is being considered for future iterations.

- 12:28:20 -

Z. AOB

Lastly, before closing the session, the chair delivered some final thoughts where he dwelled upon the role of the working group.
Participants were urged to take part actively in its success. One of the themes mentioned throughout the talks, particularly by
Gianluca Iannaccone, was "the need for a trusted third-party Measurement Authority" for diagnostics, performance and research. The
chair believes the RIPE NCC could play this role.

Meeting closed.

- 12:29:28 -



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Henk Uijterwaal                           Email: henk.uijterwaal(at)ripe.net
RIPE Network Coordination Centre          http://www.amsterdamned.org/~henk
P.O.Box 10096          Singel 258         Phone: +31.20.5354414
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