Research & Experiment On Synchronization Mechanism And Traffic Pattern Generation For Router Performance Testing

The background of the research work presented in this MSc dissertation is multi-port-router testing techniques and test system development at SC-Netcom Lab (Sichuan Network Communication Technology Laboratory). The inadequacy of existing test method for routers (such Transverse Test Method defined by ISO 9646) in handling multi-port concurrent testing, has led to a new test method called MPC-TTM (Multi-Port Concurrent Transverse Test Method).This thesis focuses on issues of synchronization and traffic pattern generation in multi-port router concurrent testing environment. The MPC-TTM enables test components to be physically distributed, which, in turn, demands synchronization mechanisms to coordinate behavior among components. Better still, existing test cases without synchronization mechanisms can be fully utilized. The author has solved the problem by unexceptionally inserting synchronization points to all the nodes in the test tree of a test case with a synchronization statement (null or real) during test case compiling. During multi-port test compiling, appropriated synchronization statement can be added to relevant test cases in TTCN-3 without synchronization settings from the TTCN-3 test case library.To simulate the real network traffic patterns in performance testing, there is a need to generate appropriate traffic as input to the RUT (Router Under Test) with certain types of coordination among all ports whenever necessary. In view that long term monitoring results have shown the self-similar nature in network traffic, the author has deliberately chosen such pattern for his experiment of traffic generation. Similar mechanisms can be applied to other traffic pattern generation although no further experiment with other types of traffic has been carried out this author's work.Experiments with synchronization and traffic pattern generation have shown that the mechanisms proposed by the author are workable and can be easily adapted to the DMC-TS under development at SC-Netcom Lab.