Benchmarks for LAN performance evaluation (original) (raw)

1988, Communications of The ACM

A technique for quickly benchmarking the performance of local area networks (LANs) is presented. Programs which model both intermittent and constant network activity are given. BENCHMARKS FOR LAN PERFORMANCE EVALUATIOAI LARRY PRESS EVALUATION ALTERNATIVES Analytic modeling, simulation, and benchmarking are three alternative performance evaluation methods. Analytic models have been developed for the lowlevel physical and data-link layers of local area networks (LANs). They predict relative efficiency of different network topologies (bus, star, and ring), transmission media (twisted pair, broadband and baseband coaxial cable, and optical fiber), and accesscontrol protocols (Carrier Sense Multiple Access and token passing). Alternatives and analytic model results at this level are reviewed in [7]. Analytic models of complete network systems that include the characteristics of actual hardware and software and implement low-level protocols, file and other services as well as applications have not been developed. This is due to the level of complexity and the variety of configurations. Simulation might be valuable for modeling a network file system and its file-server hardware and software in addition to low-level protocols. A simulation language like Simscript II.5 [6] can be used to model entities like disk directory structures, seek-sequencing algorithms, This work was done for Apple Computer on a subcontract with the Seybold GPXIP. 01988 .4CM 0001.0782/SS/O800-1014 51.50 While we used a maximum of ten background workstations, the relative rankings of two configurations were always the same with two or more background workstations. This may not remain true for much larger networks or for different configurations. Our experience indicates, however, that at least for preliminary testing, two or three background workstations are sufficient.