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This thesis investigates different methods that can be used for analyzing network performance and,ultimately, can be used for measuring the convergence time of ring coupled networks. As of today,many networks are often run with extra links, serving as backup links in case any that of the mainlinks would go down. To operate networks with backup links in layer 2 and layer 3, specific re-routing protocols such as RIP and OSPF are used in order to calculate a feasible path through anetwork when a network state changes. Depending on different implementations of the protocolsand the hardware used, the convergence times can vary substantially, which means measuring thenetwork performance is a very important part when developing a network solution. To executenetwork tests, a packet engine suite is used consisting of a network traffic generator that is used forcreating a packet stream, as well as a traffic receiver that fetches the packets sent. Various types ofengines can be used including Linux based, real-time operating systems based and bare-metal basedsolutions. From these different types of engines, a few tools are chosen and investigated on differentproperties including performance and usability. It was found that Tshark (Linux, RT-Linux based),USPI (Raspberry Pi bare metal), FreeRTOS (Raspberry Pi based), Arduino and PKTgen (Linuxkernel based) were the most suitable approaches to be used for testing. The test parameters includetesting the gaps between packets, maximum jitter, average jitter and packets sent per second. Thesetests revealed that an IXIA solution was slightly more accurate when used as a receiving end sinceit produced less jitter, however this difference could only be noticed in a micro second range. Itwas also revealed that it produced slightly less jitter than the other packet generators, also here onlynoticeable in a microsecond range. Thus it can be concluded that IXIA is not much superior any ofthe close to hardware solutions. The executed network tests revealed that the Westermo developedlayer 2 protocol FRNT generated less network convergence time and less packet losses than thecommonly used RSTP protocol. Similar tests against the layer 3 protocols revealed that RIP wasmuch faster than OSPF and it also lost less packets. Finally it is concluded that there is no needto buy an expensive network testing suite to test the convergence time of a network. Instead, anetwork testing suite can be developed with minimal funding. |
