Technical White Paper for IP Network Performance Manager

8/12/2019 Technical White Paper for IP Network Performance Manager

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Technical White Paper for

IP Network Performance manager

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.


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Technical White Paper for IP Network Performance Manager

Copyright 2007 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.http://datacomm.huawei.com

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The List of Contents1. PREFACE .......................................................................................................................... 1

2. INTRODUCTION TO IP NETWORK PERFORMANCE MANAGER ................................. 1

2.1 Critical Concepts ........................................................................................................ 1

2.1.1 Test Point ............................................................................................................ 2

2.1.2 Path..................................................................................................................... 4

2.2 Brief Introduction to the Functions.............................................................................. 5

2.3 Working Principles...................................................................................................... 6

2.3.1 Composition of IP Network Performance Manager ............................................ 62.3.2 Working Flow of IP Network Performance Manager........................................... 7

2.3.3 Relevant Protocols and MIB ............................................................................... 8

3. CRITICAL FEATURES OF IP NETWORK PERFORMANCE MANAGER ........................ 8

3.1 Product Features List ................................................................................................. 8

3.2 Device Monitoring..................................................................................................... 10

3.3 Link Monitoring..........................................................................................................11

3.4 QoS Monitoring between Path and Test Point ......................................................... 13

3.5 Management of Equipment from Multiple Vendors .................................................. 14

3.6 Threshold-Crossing Early Warning........................................................................... 15

3.7 Other System Features ............................................................................................ 15

4. TYPICAL APPLICATION OF IP NETWORK PERFORMANCE MANAGER ................... 16

4.1 Planning of Monitoring Object and Monitoring Time ................................................ 16

4.2 Probe Deployment Policy ......................................................................................... 17

5. END.................................................................................................................................. 17


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Technical White Paper for IP Network ManagerAbstrac t: IP network performance manager helps the operators monitor the network

resources utilization and network operation performance, discover possible

problems on the network, provide data support tool for market planning,

introduce test point, path, link and device as IP network monitoring object, and

fulfill the IP network performance management through the probe + server

mode. This document introduces the basic concept, working principle, product

feature and typical application of IP network performance manager.

Keywords:IP network performance, test point, path, probe, delay, packet loss and jitter

1. Preface

The network scale of the broadband network operator becomes larger and larger and

customers have higher and higher requirement for the Quality of Service (QoS) of the

upper application and upper service. If the operator administrators still treat the

Broadband Network as a black box, they cannot break away from the passive

situation of processing customers complaints. Therefore, operators must find a

monitor of IP network operation quality situation, to help the operators conveniently

monitor the IP network resource utilization and network operation performance, timely

discover possible problems on the network and provide data operation for market

planning, network optimization and network operation and maintenance.

2. Introduction to IP Network Performance

Manager

IP network performance manager is to monitor IP network better. Here come the

introductions to new concepts such as test point and path, for the sake of

understanding the features of IP network performance manager.

2.1 Crit ical Concepts


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2.1.1 Test Point

Test point is the reference point of network performance test, which are

representative device points selected from the IP network performances by users

when monitoring the entire network performance. Through obtaining the performance

parameters such as delay, packet loss and jitter of the node, other test point or IP

address, learn the operation situation of the network.

Note: The test point is defined by users manually in the IP network performance

manager, without necessary relation with the actual network location of device.

Test points at different network locations are defined as level 1 test point and level 2

test point:

Level 1 test point: It is the test point for complete-interconnection performance

monitor, that is, the system makes complete-interconnection performance

indices measurement between level 1 test points. Generally, level 1 test points

are on the backbone layer of network.

Level 2 test point: It is the test point for hub-spoke performance monitor. A level

2 test point must belong to a level 1 test point, that is, the system makes

hub-spoke index measurement between level 2 test points under a level 1 test

point. Generally, the level 2 test points are on convergence or access layer.


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Legend Level 1 test point

Level 2 test point

Path

Measurement path of delay and packet loss

Figure 1 Basic concept of test point and path

The following describes the use and function of network performance manager with

examples. In the network as shown in Figure 1, specify Shanghai, Xi'an, Guangzhou

and Beijing as level 1 test point. Then, in the IP network performance manager, make

measurement for the operation quality indices between the four level 1 test points,

and make and generate the following matrix data report.

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Table 1 Delay and packet loss report example between level 1 test points

Shanghai Xi'an Guangzhou Beijing

Source/

Destination Delay

(ms)

Packet

loss

ratio

(%)

Delay

(ms)

Packet

loss

ratio (%)

Delay

(ms)

Packet

loss

ratio

(%)

Delay

(ms)

Packet loss

ratio (%)

Shanghai --- --- 9.00 0.00 41.00 0.00 23.00 0.00

Xi'an 61.00 0.00 --- --- 41.00 0.00 49.00 0.00

Guangzhou 38.00 0.00 144.00 0.00 --- --- 26.00 0.00

Beijing 24.00 0.00 12.00 0.00 14.00 2.10 --- ---

Note: Red data indicate the threshold-crossing data.

The delay threshold value is 120.0 (ms). The packet loss threshold is 2.0 (%).

In the network as shown in Figure 1, specify Shenzhen, Dongguan and Shantou as

level 2 test point under level 1 test point Guangzhou and Haidian, Chaoyang and

Xuanwu as level 2 test point under level 1 test point Beijing. In the IP network

performance manager, generate the following data report for the above test points.

Table 2 Delay and packet loss data report example between level 1 and level 2 test

points

Level 1 test

pointLevel 2 test point Delay (ms)

Packet loss

ratio (%)Update time

Guangzhou Shenzhen 21.00 0.00 2005-04-16 10:20:00

Guangzhou Dongguan 20.20 0.00 2005-04-16 10:20:00

Guangzhou Shantou 20.30 0.00 2005-04-16 10:20:00

Beijing Haidian 2.40 0.01 2005-04-16 10:20:00

Beijing Chaoyang 2.50 0.00 2005-04-16 10:20:00

Beijing Xuanwu 2.60 0.02 2005-04-16 10:20:00

2.1.2 Path

Path is the performance monitor object defined in the IP network performance


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manager. The left is a device node (it is necessary to specify the port) and the right is

any IP address (it can be configured by user). Through defining the path, the users

can test the network path performance from the device port to any IP address.

To manage multiple paths, define the concept of path group, that is, a group of paths.

Through the path group, execute batch operation to the path, for example, set

performance threshold for multiple paths. Or, at the path creation, select the

subordinative path group of the path, and treat the current performance threshold of

the path group as the default performance threshold of this path.

In the network shown in Figure 1, set the path from Shanghai to www.huawei.com(Shanghai-to-huawei) and the path from Beijing to this IP (Beijing-to-huawei). In the

IP network performance manager, generate the following report for the above paths:

Table 3 Path delay and packet loss rate data report example

Path Path groupDelay

(ms)/Threshold

Packet loss rate

(%)/ThresholdUpdate time

Shanghai-to-huawei to-huawei 12.00/20.00 0.00/0.102005-04-16

10:20:00

Beijing-to-huawei to-huawei 41.00/20.00 1.20/0.102005-04-16

10:20:00

2.2 Brief Introduction to the Functions

IP network performance manager mainly includes the following functions:

Monitoring whether the network device can work, for example, the situation of

board;

Monitoring the utilization of network resource, for example, link bandwidth

occupation ratio;

Monitoring the operation quality from network edge to edge, for example, delay

and packet loss from POP A to POP B;

Being applicable to the networking with devices of manufacturers and

supporting devices of manufacturers like Cisco besides Huawei;

Providing large-scaled network manageability, for example, server distribution

and probe distribution;

Exporting report flexibly and conveniently, for example, auto export on

schedule; Having flexible authorization policy (allocate authority to users by object +
http://www.huawei.com/http://www.huawei.com/


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operation) to facilitate allocating user rights by operators according to the actual

management duties;

Having thorough user management and providing detailed user operation log

record and task operation log record;

Providing simply and easy-to-use database backup tool and simplifying the

data backup of system administrator, to ensure data security;

Providing Watchman dual system remote backup component to ensure the

system security and high availability of system.

Here come the details of the critical features.

2.3 Working Principles

2.3.1 Composition of IP Network Performance Manager

As shown in Figure 2, IP network performance manager (Perf Mgr) mainly includes

the following parts at the operation:

IP network (Datacomm Network): It is the IP network which the administrator of

operator hopes to monitor. Probe: It is to obtain the performance data reported by device. According to the

IP network scale and amount of performance indices to be monitored, deploy

proper Probes. In the case of a small scale and a few indices, Probe and IP

network performance manager server run on the same hardware server.

IP network performance manager server (Perf Mgr Server)

Report manager (Report Mgr Server): The performance report is presented to

user through this manager.

Web Browser: It can browse various HTML reports.

JAVA Client: The main functions of IP network performance manager can be

realized through this client.


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Figure 2 Composition of IP network performance manager

2.3.2 Working Flow of IP Network Performance Manager

As shown in Figure 3, if users hope to learn the quality situation of network operation

(for example, users want to monitor the delay and packet loss from Shanghai router

to Huawei website shown in Figure 1), then:

Users create the Shanghai-to-huawei path on JAVA Client and the system will

create the performance collection task for the Shanghai-to-huawei path.

Perf Mgr Server starts the PING task of Shanghai router to Huawei website

automatically. However, this step can be omitted for some performance

collection task, for example, interface bandwidth utility.

Probe collects various performance data from device periodically.

Probe returns the relevant performance date to Perf Mgr Server.

Users can see the delay and packet loss of Shanghai-to-huawei and the proper

performance images with Web Browser or JAVA Client.

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Present performance data

A user starts a collection task

through Client

The probe returns the performance data

The probe collects performance data

(Optional) make configurations

to device automatically

Figure 3 Working flow of IP network performance manager

2.3.3 Relevant Protocols and MIB

Between IP network performance manager and managed NEs, Simple Network

Management Protocol (SNMP) is adopted. For the managed devices, they need to

support some MIB, for example, RFC1213-MIB-II, RFC2233-IF-MIB andRFC2925-DISMAN-PING-MIB.

3. Critical Features of IP Network Performance

Manager

3.1 Product Features List

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The following table lists the function features of IP network performance manager:

Table 4 Product features of IP network performance manager

Feature Description

Device monitoring

CPU occupation ratio (average and peak) of boards like main control board

and service board

Memory occupation ratio (average and peak) of boards like main control

board and service board

Device interface traffic

Link monitoring

Incoming/Outgoing traffic and incoming/outgoing bandwidth utility (average

and peak)

Link fault rate

QoS monitoring

between path and test

point

On the basis of path (device interface to any IP address) and test point:

Delay (minimum, average and peak)

Packet loss ratio (average)

Jitter

PING parameter can be set, for example, packet size, time interval and

number of packets.

Management of

equipment from

multiple vendors

They support devices of Huawei and Cisco both.

Convenient and

flexible report output

They provide image report:

Displaying performance image based on WEB;

Querying by day, week, month and year;

Supporting performance image comparison analysis (select

reference time and comparison time);

Refreshing performance images automatically;

Generating report automatically;

Displaying average and peak together.


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Feature Description

The provide data reports:

Displaying performance data in form;

Making arrangement by fields;

Supporting switchover of index unit;

Identifying data crossing the threshold (for example, red);

Exporting performance data to file (CSV format, text format and

HTML format);

Generating report automatically or manually;

Supporting report export in matrix (for example, delay between level

1 test points).

Large-scaled network

management

Probes are distributed. An IP network performance managers can manage

up to 40 Probes.

Probe can be displayed in the IP topology view for the convenience of

management of Probe.

DBMS and server can be deployed separately, avoiding resource

competition between NM server and DBMS.

Performance index

threshold setting

The performance index threshold can be set:

Device CPU utility threshold

Memory utility threshold

Upper/Lower threshold of incoming/outgoing bandwidth utility

Packet loss ratio and delay threshold between level 1 test point and

level 2 test point

Alarm can be sent when the threshold is exceeded and the proper report

data will be displayed with particular color.

Long term storage of

performance data

The performance probe can store the original performance data (RRD file)

locally and the database at the server can store the aggregation

performance data with the granularity of one day or 30 minutes.

Performance data

dump

They support dumping the performance data in the specified time range

from database and storing them in text file. After successful dumping, the

proper data in the database are cleared to release the data space.

3.2 Device Monitoring


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IP network consists of multiple devices and links. The health situation, load situation

and resource utilization of device are some basic data which need to be managed by

network administrator. IP network performance manager provides the statistics

function to the CPU and memory occupation ratio (average and peak) of main control

board and service board as well as interface traffic, so that the administrator of

operators can learn the health situation of device simply and quickly.

Figure 4 is the example of CPU and memory utility of main control board:

Threshold: Upper and lower threshold of performance collection index,

identified at the right box, for example, the red transverse line at 90%;

Report time segment and period: The daily, weekly, monthly and yearly reports

can be generated on schedule.

Data compression display mode: Obtain the average of data in the compression

period rather than peak to display at the data compression.

Comparison display: It can be displayed with the report in other time segment

for comparison.

Description of collection object: CPU utility

Description of collection object: Memory utility

Figure 4 Example of CPU and memory utility report of main control board

3.3 Link Monitoring

Like the device operation situation, the fault situation and resource utilization of link

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on the IP network are also basic data of network operation. IP network performance

manager provides monitor and statistics function to link incoming/outgoing traffic and

incoming/outgoing bandwidth utility (peak and average).

Figure 5 Example of link traffic and bandwidth occupation ratio

Besides graphical report, IP network performance manager also provides the

following data report:

Table 5 Link performance report

Report name Contents

Link traffic statistics report Link group name, link name, rated rate (KBit/s),

incoming/outgoing traffic (GByte), incoming/outgoing original

average utility (%), average utility of incoming/outgoing daily

peak (%), incoming/outgoing peak utility (%) and

incoming/outgoing non-burst peak utility (%)

Performance statistics

report of link resource

Link resource details (link group name, link name, local device

name, local port ID, local IP address, opposite device name,

opposite port ID and opposite IP address), rated rate (KBit/s),

incoming/outgoing traffic (GByte), incoming/outgoing original

average utility (%), average utility of incoming/outgoing daily

peak (%), incoming/outgoing peak utility (%) and

incoming/outgoing non-burst peak utility (%)

Traffic return report Link group name, XX month traffic (GByte), XX month income

(Yuan), XX month return rate (yuan/GB), rank and increment of

return compared with the that of last month (%)

Link fault statistics report Level, link amount, normal link amount, fault amount and fault

rate

Note: The monthly incomes are financial data, which should be input by the

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administrator of operator for working out income rate by the system.

3.4 QoS Monitoring between Path and Test Point

Operators are changing the concerns from device operation to users feeling and from

network performance to QoS. Therefore, it is not enough to learn the operation of

device and link only. It is necessary to monitor and analyze the QoS of customer

service further from the aspect of customer. For example, the important visit path of

valuable customer (delay of dedicated line from Beijing to Shenzhen) and the delay

from the access POP point to the favorite TopN site of mass for ordinary broadband

customer can be obtained through the path monitor function of IP network

performance manager.

Note: If operators hope to monitor the traffic direction analysis in a smaller granularity,

they can adopt the iManager D2610 NetStream Analysis System solution of

Huawei.

The QoS of upper service depends on the operation situation of underlying basic

network. Once problems occur, no matter whether it is backbone network,

convergence network or access network, the customer service in the relevant range

will be affected necessarily. Therefore, the operator must monitor the operation of

bearer network strictly at any moment. In case IP network performance manager is

used, the operation quality of bearer network can be mastered conveniently. It is

recommended to make complete-interconnection measurement monitor (set the

device on the backbone network to level 1 test point) and make hub-spoke

measurement monitor for convergence or access network (set the device on

convergence or access network to level 2 test point).

Figure 6 illustrates an example of the average delay and packet loss ratio report of a

path:


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Figure 6 Path delay and packet loss ratio report example

Besides graphical report, IP network performance manager also provides the

following data report:

Table 6 QoS report between path and test point

Report name Contents

Performance report of level 1test point

Delay (ms) and packet loss ratio (%) of test points anddevices

Performance report of level 1and level 2 test points

Delay (ms) and packet loss ratio (%) of level 1 and level 2test points

Path inventory reportPath name, belonging path group, device name, oppositeIP, delay threshold (ms) and packet loss ratio threshold (%)

Path group inventory reportPath group name, delay threshold (ms) and packet lossthreshold (%)

Level 1 test point inventoryreport Test point name, test point device and test point IP

3.5 Management of Equipment from Multiple

Vendors

The networking of equipment from multiple vendors is a common case, but it brings

some management difficulty to the operators. For example, the performance situation

of equipment of different vendors should be queried from different Network

Management System (NMS) and it is difficult to realize the end-to-end monitor object

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of network.

At the system design stage of IP network performance manager, the common

management of equipment from multiple vendors is fully considered. So, it has a

good scalability on the system structure and has different drive modules for

equipment of different vendors. At present, this system can manage the devices of

multiple vendors.

3.6 Threshold-Crossing Early Warning

In common cases, any performance index has a reasonable distribution range. IP

network performance manager provides multiple threshold functions (for example,

upper limit and lower limit). If the index exceeds the range, it indicates problem in

network performance and the administrator should check and remove the problem.

For the threshold-crossing situation, the system will generate alarm on the one hand.

If the user sets alarm Email or short message notification, the user can learn the

abnormity of network timely when he is remote from the system and the network

operation & maintenance efficiency are improved. On the other hand, the relevantcontent exported by the relevant report is identified with particular colors (for example,

red).

3.7 Other System Features

IP network performance manager is telecom-level product. Therefore, the stability,

scalability and reliability of product are realized by relevant design:

It provides flexible authorization policy (allocate authority to users by object +operation) to facilitate allocating user rights by operators according to the actual

management duties.

It provides simply and easy-to-use database backup tool and simplifies the data

backup of system administrator.

It provides Watchman dual system backup component to ensure high

availability of system.

It provides detailed user operation log record and task operation log record for

the future trace.


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4. Typical Application of IP NetworkPerformance Manager

The deployment of IP network performance manager must be planned carefully.

Otherwise, it may bring some unnecessary network traffic or make the set object fail.

The following is the critical points in the plan:

Select the proper measurement object and necessary time segment.

Make the Probe deployment properly.

4.1 Planning of Monitoring Object and Monitoring

Time

In the plan of monitoring object and monitoring time, refer to the following table as the

basic policy:

Table 7 Monitoring object and monitoring time planning suggestions

Network

layer

Monitoring Monitor

contents

Monitoring

Scope

Monitoring

time

Monitoring

purpose

Resource

utilization

Device boardhealth situation(CPU/memory)and link faultsituation

Large area Long term

Resolve theproblem of whetherthe network canwork or not

Network

operation

performance

Delay/packetloss,

interface/linktraffic andinterface/linkbandwidth utilityin the POP pointand between thePOP points


Resolve the

problem ofoperation situationof network andprovide referencefor network planand tuning

Backbone

Network

exception

location

Locating theproblemspecifically

Pertinence Short term Resolve problem

Converge

nce/Access

Resource

utilization

Device boardhealth situation

(CPU/memory)and link faultsituation


Resolve theproblem of whether

the network canwork or not


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Network

layer

Monitoring Monitor

contents

Monitoring

Scope

Monitoring

time

Monitoring

purpose

Network

operation

performance

Delay/Pack lossfromconvergence/access point tobackbone layernode


Resolve theproblem ofoperation situationof network andprovide referencefor network planand tuning

Customer

service

situation

Critical path ofvaluablecustomer

Pertinence Long termImprove thecustomerssatisfaction

Networkexception

location

Locating theproblemspecifically

Pertinence Short term Resolve problem

4.2 Probe Deployment Policy

The number of probes deployed should consider the scalability. That is, the

performance tasks collected by each Probe cannot exceed 1000, for the sake of

single point task expansion.

Probes are deployed with the handy principle, that is, they are laid out in the place

bringing a minimum network management traffic.

5. End

Huawei is driven by user demand. Huawei facilitates the development of network

performance management technology and launches the analysis statistics tool andresolution meeting the user demand. Huawei hopes that the iManager N2000 DMS IP

network performance manager -- Perf Mgr becomes a good assistant of operators in

market plan, network plan and network operation & operation.

Technical White Paper for IP Network Performance Manager

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