summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/doc/rfc/rfc1030.txt
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
Diffstat (limited to 'doc/rfc/rfc1030.txt')
-rw-r--r--doc/rfc/rfc1030.txt893
1 files changed, 893 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/doc/rfc/rfc1030.txt b/doc/rfc/rfc1030.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..80bfb49
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/rfc/rfc1030.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,893 @@
+Network Working Group M. Lambert
+Request for Comments: 1030 M.I.T. Laboratory for Computer Science
+ November 1987
+
+
+ On Testing the NETBLT Protocol over Divers Networks
+
+
+STATUS OF THIS MEMO
+
+ This RFC describes the results gathered from testing NETBLT over
+ three networks of differing bandwidths and round-trip delays. While
+ the results are not complete, the information gathered so far has
+ been very promising and supports RFC-998's assertion that that NETBLT
+ can provide very high throughput over networks with very different
+ characteristics. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
+
+1. Introduction
+
+ NETBLT (NETwork BLock Transfer) is a transport level protocol
+ intended for the rapid transfer of a large quantity of data between
+ computers. It provides a transfer that is reliable and flow
+ controlled, and is designed to provide maximum throughput over a wide
+ variety of networks. The NETBLT protocol is specified in RFC-998;
+ this document assumes an understanding of the specification as
+ described in RFC-998.
+
+ Tests over three different networks are described in this document.
+ The first network, a 10 megabit-per-second Proteon Token Ring, served
+ as a "reference environment" to determine NETBLT's best possible
+ performance. The second network, a 10 megabit-per-second Ethernet,
+ served as an access path to the third network, the 3 megabit-per-
+ second Wideband satellite network. Determining NETBLT's performance
+ over the Ethernet allowed us to account for Ethernet-caused behaviour
+ in NETBLT transfers that used the Wideband network. Test results for
+ each network are described in separate sections. The final section
+ presents some conclusions and further directions of research. The
+ document's appendices list test results in detail.
+
+2. Acknowledgements
+
+ Many thanks are due Bob Braden, Stephen Casner, and Annette DeSchon
+ of ISI for the time they spent analyzing and commenting on test
+ results gathered at the ISI end of the NETBLT Wideband network tests.
+ Bob Braden was also responsible for porting the IBM PC/AT NETBLT
+ implementation to a SUN-3 workstation running UNIX. Thanks are also
+ due Mike Brescia, Steven Storch, Claudio Topolcic and others at BBN
+ who provided much useful information about the Wideband network, and
+
+
+
+M. Lambert [Page 1]
+
+RFC 1030 Testing the NETBLT Protocol November 1987
+
+
+ helped monitor it during testing.
+
+3. Implementations and Test Programs
+
+ This section briefly describes the NETBLT implementations and test
+ programs used in the testing. Currently, NETBLT runs on three
+ machine types: Symbolics LISP machines, IBM PC/ATs, and SUN-3s. The
+ test results described in this paper were gathered using the IBM
+ PC/AT and SUN-3 NETBLT implementations. The IBM and SUN
+ implementations are very similar; most differences lie in timer and
+ multi-tasking library implementations. The SUN NETBLT implementation
+ uses UNIX's user-accessible raw IP socket; it is not implemented in
+ the UNIX kernel.
+
+ The test application performs a simple memory-to-memory transfer of
+ an arbitrary amount of data. All data are actually allocated by the
+ application, given to the protocol layer, and copied into NETBLT
+ packets. The results are therefore fairly realistic and, with
+ appropriately large amounts of buffering, could be attained by disk-
+ based applications as well.
+
+ The test application provides several parameters that can be varied
+ to alter NETBLT's performance characteristics. The most important of
+ these parameters are:
+
+
+ burst interval The number of milliseconds from the start of one
+ burst transmission to the start of the next burst
+ transmission.
+
+
+ burst size The number of packets transmitted per burst.
+
+
+ buffer size The number of bytes in a NETBLT buffer (all
+ buffers must be the same size, save the last,
+ which can be any size required to complete the
+ transfer).
+
+
+ data packet size
+ The number of bytes contained in a NETBLT DATA
+ packet's data segment.
+
+
+ number of outstanding buffers
+ The number of buffers which can be in
+ transmission/error recovery at any given moment.
+
+
+
+M. Lambert [Page 2]
+
+RFC 1030 Testing the NETBLT Protocol November 1987
+
+
+ The protocol's throughput is measured in two ways. First, the "real
+ throughput" is throughput as viewed by the user: the number of bits
+ transferred divided by the time from program start to program finish.
+ Although this is a useful measurement from the user's point of view,
+ another throughput measurement is more useful for analyzing NETBLT's
+ performance. The "steady-state throughput" is the rate at which data
+ is transmitted as the transfer size approaches infinity. It does not
+ take into account connection setup time, and (more importantly), does
+ not take into account the time spent recovering from packet-loss
+ errors that occur after the last buffer in the transmission is sent
+ out. For NETBLT transfers using networks with long round-trip delays
+ (and consequently with large numbers of outstanding buffers), this
+ "late" recovery phase can add large amounts of time to the
+ transmission, time which does not reflect NETBLT's peak transmission
+ rate. The throughputs listed in the test cases that follow are all
+ steady-state throughputs.
+
+4. Implementation Performance
+
+ This section describes the theoretical performance of the IBM PC/AT
+ NETBLT implementation on both the transmitting and receiving sides.
+ Theoretical performance was measured on two LANs: a 10 megabit-per-
+ second Proteon Token Ring and a 10 megabit-per-second Ethernet.
+ "Theoretical performance" is defined to be the performance achieved
+ if the sending NETBLT did nothing but transmit data packets, and the
+ receiving NETBLT did nothing but receive data packets.
+
+ Measuring the send-side's theoretical performance is fairly easy,
+ since the sending NETBLT does very little more than transmit packets
+ at a predetermined rate. There are few, if any, factors which can
+ influence the processing speed one way or another.
+
+ Using a Proteon P1300 interface on a Proteon Token Ring, the IBM
+ PC/AT NETBLT implementation can copy a maximum-sized packet (1990
+ bytes excluding protocol headers) from NETBLT buffer to NETBLT data
+ packet, format the packet header, and transmit the packet onto the
+ network in about 8 milliseconds. This translates to a maximum
+ theoretical throughput of 1.99 megabits per second.
+
+ Using a 3COM 3C500 interface on an Ethernet LAN, the same
+ implementation can transmit a maximum-sized packet (1438 bytes
+ excluding protocol headers) in 6.0 milliseconds, for a maximum
+ theoretical throughput of 1.92 megabits per second.
+
+ Measuring the receive-side's theoretical performance is more
+ difficult. Since all timer management and message ACK overhead is
+ incurred at the receiving NETBLT's end, the processing speed can be
+ slightly slower than the sending NETBLT's processing speed (this does
+
+
+
+M. Lambert [Page 3]
+
+RFC 1030 Testing the NETBLT Protocol November 1987
+
+
+ not even take into account the demultiplexing overhead that the
+ receiver incurs while matching packets with protocol handling
+ functions and connections). In fact, the amount by which the two
+ processing speeds differ is dependent on several factors, the most
+ important of which are: length of the NETBLT buffer list, the number
+ of data timers which may need to be set, and the number of control
+ messages which are ACKed by the data packet. Almost all of this
+ added overhead is directly related to the number of outstanding
+ buffers allowable during the transfer. The fewer the number of
+ outstanding buffers, the shorter the NETBLT buffer list, and the
+ faster a scan through the buffer list and the shorter the list of
+ unacknowledged control messages.
+
+ Assuming a single-outstanding-buffer transfer, the receiving-side
+ NETBLT can DMA a maximum-sized data packet from the Proteon Token
+ Ring into its network interface, copy it from the interface into a
+ packet buffer and finally copy the packet into the correct NETBLT
+ buffer in 8 milliseconds: the same speed as the sender of data.
+
+ Under the same conditions, the implementation can receive a maximum-
+ sized packet from the Ethernet in 6.1 milliseconds, for a maximum
+ theoretical throughput of 1.89 megabits per second.
+
+5. Testing on a Proteon Token Ring
+
+ The Proteon Token Ring used for testing is a 10 megabit-per-second
+ LAN supporting about 40 hosts. The machines on either end of the
+ transfer were IBM PC/ATs using Proteon P1300 network interfaces. The
+ Token Ring provides high bandwidth with low round-trip delay and
+ negligible packet loss, a good debugging environment in situations
+ where packet loss, packet reordering, and long round-trip time would
+ hinder debugging. Also contributing to high performance is the large
+ (maximum 2046 bytes) network MTU. The larger packets take somewhat
+ longer to transmit than do smaller packets (8 milliseconds per 2046
+ byte packet versus 6 milliseconds per 1500 byte packet), but the
+ lessened per-byte computational overhead increases throughput
+ somewhat.
+
+ The fastest single-outstanding-buffer transmission rate was 1.49
+ megabits per second, and was achieved using a test case with the
+ following parameters:
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+M. Lambert [Page 4]
+
+RFC 1030 Testing the NETBLT Protocol November 1987
+
+
+ transfer size 2-5 million bytes
+
+
+ data packet size
+ 1990 bytes
+
+
+ buffer size 19900 bytes
+
+
+ burst size 5 packets
+
+
+ burst interval 40 milliseconds. The timer code on the IBM PC/AT
+ is accurate to within 1 millisecond, so a 40
+ millisecond burst can be timed very accurately.
+
+ Allowing only one outstanding buffer reduced the protocol to running
+ "lock-step" (the receiver of data sends a GO, the sender sends data,
+ the receiver sends an OK, followed by a GO for the next buffer).
+ Since the lock-step test incurred one round-trip-delay's worth of
+ overhead per buffer (between transmission of a buffer's last data
+ packet and receipt of an OK for that buffer/GO for the next buffer),
+ a test with two outstanding buffers (providing essentially constant
+ packet transmission) should have resulted in higher throughput.
+
+ A second test, this time with two outstanding buffers, was performed,
+ with the above parameters identical save for an increased burst
+ interval of 43 milliseconds. The highest throughput recorded was
+ 1.75 megabits per second. This represents 95% efficiency (5 1990-
+ byte packets every 43 milliseconds gives a maximum theoretical
+ throughput of 1.85 megabits per second). The increase in throughput
+ over a single-outstanding-buffer transmission occurs because, with
+ two outstanding buffers, there is no round-trip-delay lag between
+ buffer transmissions and the sending NETBLT can transmit constantly.
+ Because the P1300 interface can transmit and receive concurrently, no
+ packets were dropped due to collision on the interface.
+
+ As mentioned previously, the minimum transmission time for a
+ maximum-sized packet on the Proteon Ring is 8 milliseconds. One
+ would expect, therefore, that the maximum throughput for a double-
+ buffered transmission would occur with a burst interval of 8
+ milliseconds times 5 packets per burst, or 40 milliseconds. This
+ would allow the sender of data to transmit bursts with no "dead time"
+ in between bursts. Unfortunately, the sender of data must take time
+ to process incoming control messages, which typically forces a 2-3
+ millisecond gap between bursts, lowering the throughput. With a
+ burst interval of 43 milliseconds, the incoming packets are processed
+
+
+
+M. Lambert [Page 5]
+
+RFC 1030 Testing the NETBLT Protocol November 1987
+
+
+ during the 3 millisecond-per-burst "dead time", making the protocol
+ more efficient.
+
+6. Testing on an Ethernet
+
+ The network used in performing this series of tests was a 10 megabit
+ per second Ethernet supporting about 150 hosts. The machines at
+ either end of the NETBLT connection were IBM PC/ATs using 3COM 3C500
+ network interfaces. As with the Proteon Token Ring, the Ethernet
+ provides high bandwidth with low delay. Unfortunately, the
+ particular Ethernet used for testing (MIT's infamous Subnet 26) is
+ known for being somewhat noisy. In addition, the 3COM 3C500 Ethernet
+ interfaces are relatively unsophisticated, with only a single
+ hardware packet buffer for both transmitting and receiving packets.
+ This gives the interface an annoying tendency to drop packets under
+ heavy load. The combination of these factors made protocol
+ performance analysis somewhat more difficult than on the Proteon
+ Ring.
+
+ The fastest single-buffer transmission rate was 1.45 megabits per
+ second, and was achieved using a test case with the following
+ parameters:
+
+ transfer size 2-5 million bytes
+
+
+ data packet size
+ 1438 bytes (maximum size excluding protocol
+ headers).
+
+
+ buffer size 14380 bytes
+
+
+ burst size 5 packets
+
+
+ burst interval 30 milliseconds (6.0 milliseconds x 5 packets).
+
+ A second test, this one with parameters identical to the first save
+ for number of outstanding buffers (2 instead of 1) resulted in
+ substantially lower throughput (994 kilobits per second), with a
+ large number of packets retransmitted (10%). The retransmissions
+ occurred because the 3COM 3C500 network interface has only one
+ hardware packet buffer and cannot hold a transmitting and receiving
+ packet at the same time. With two outstanding buffers, the sender of
+ data can transmit constantly; this means that when the receiver of
+ data attempts to send a packet, its interface's receive hardware goes
+
+
+
+M. Lambert [Page 6]
+
+RFC 1030 Testing the NETBLT Protocol November 1987
+
+
+ deaf to the network and any packets being transmitted at the time by
+ the sender of data are lost. A symmetrical problem occurs with
+ control messages sent from receiver of data to sender of data, but
+ the number of control messages sent is small enough and the
+ retransmission algorithm redundant enough that little performance
+ degradation occurs due to control message loss.
+
+ When the burst interval was lengthened from 30 milliseconds per 5
+ packet burst to 45 milliseconds per 5 packet burst, a third as many
+ packets were dropped, and throughput climbed accordingly, to 1.12
+ megabits per second. Presumably, the longer burst interval allowed
+ more dead time between bursts and less likelihood of the receiver of
+ data's interface being deaf to the net while the sender of data was
+ sending a packet. An interesting note is that, when the same test
+ was conducted on a special Ethernet LAN with the only two hosts
+ attached being the two NETBLT machines, no packets were dropped once
+ the burst interval rose above 40 milliseconds/5 packet burst. The
+ improved performance was doubtless due to the absence of extra
+ network traffic.
+
+7. Testing on the Wideband Network
+
+ The following section describes results gathered using the Wideband
+ network. The Wideband network is a satellite-based network with ten
+ stations competing for a raw satellite channel bandwidth of 3
+ megabits per second. Since the various tests resulted in substantial
+ changes to the NETBLT specification and implementation, some of the
+ major changes are described along with the results and problems that
+ forced those changes.
+
+ The Wideband network has several characteristics that make it an
+ excellent environment for testing NETBLT. First, it has an extremely
+ long round-trip delay (1.8 seconds). This provides a good test of
+ NETBLT's rate control and multiple-buffering capabilities. NETBLT's
+ rate control allows the packet transmission rate to be regulated
+ independently of the maximum allowable amount of outstanding data,
+ providing flow control as well as very large "windows". NETBLT's
+ multiple-buffering capability enables data to still be transmitted
+ while earlier data are awaiting retransmission and subsequent data
+ are being prepared for transmission. On a network with a long
+ round-trip delay, the alternative "lock-step" approach would require
+ a 1.8 second gap between each buffer transmission, degrading
+ performance.
+
+ Another interesting characteristic of the Wideband network is its
+ throughput. Although its raw bandwidth is 3 megabits per second, at
+ the time of these tests fully 2/3 of that was consumed by low-level
+ network overhead and hardware limitations. (A detailed analysis of
+
+
+
+M. Lambert [Page 7]
+
+RFC 1030 Testing the NETBLT Protocol November 1987
+
+
+ the overhead appears at the end of this document.) This reduces the
+ available bandwidth to just over 1 megabit per second. Since the
+ NETBLT implementation can run substantially faster than that, testing
+ over the Wideband net allows us to measure NETBLT's ability to
+ utilize very high percentages of available bandwidth.
+
+ Finally, the Wideband net has some interesting packet reorder and
+ delay characteristics that provide a good test of NETBLT's ability to
+ deal with these problems.
+
+ Testing progressed in several phases. The first phase involved using
+ source-routed packets in a path from an IBM PC/AT on MIT's Subnet 26,
+ through a BBN Butterfly Gateway, over a T1 link to BBN, onto the
+ Wideband network, back down into a BBN Voice Funnel, and onto ISI's
+ Ethernet to another IBM PC/AT. Testing proceeded fairly slowly, due
+ to gateway software and source-routing bugs. Once a connection was
+ finally established, we recorded a best throughput of approximately
+ 90K bits per second.
+
+ Several problems contributed to the low throughput. First, the
+ gateways at either end were forwarding packets onto their respective
+ LANs faster than the IBM PC/AT's could accept them (the 3COM 3C500
+ interface would not have time to re-enable input before another
+ packet would arrive from the gateway). Even with bursts of size 1,
+ spaced 6 milliseconds apart, the gateways would aggregate groups of
+ packets coming from the same satellite frame, and send them faster
+ than the PC could receive them. The obvious result was many dropped
+ packets, and degraded performance. Also, the half-duplex nature of
+ the 3COM interface caused incoming packets to be dropped when packets
+ were being sent.
+
+ The number of packets dropped on the sending NETBLT side due to the
+ long interface re-enable time was reduced by packing as many control
+ messages as possible into a single control packet (rather than
+ placing only one message in a control packet). This reduced the
+ number of control packets transmitted to one per buffer transmission,
+ which the PC was able to handle. In particular, messages of the form
+ OK(n) were combined with messages of the form GO(n + 1), in order to
+ prevent two control packets from arriving too close together to both
+ be received.
+
+ Performance degradation from dropped control packets was also
+ minimized by changing to a highly redundant control packet
+ transmission algorithm. Control messages are now stored in a single
+ long-lived packet, with ACKed messages continuously bumped off the
+ head of the packet and new messages added at the tail of the packet.
+ Every time a new message needs to be transmitted, any unACKed old
+ messages are transmitted as well. The sending NETBLT, which receives
+
+
+
+M. Lambert [Page 8]
+
+RFC 1030 Testing the NETBLT Protocol November 1987
+
+
+ these control messages, is tuned to ignore duplicate messages with
+ almost no overhead. This transmission redundancy puts little
+ reliance on the NETBLT control timer, further reducing performance
+ degradation from lost control packets.
+
+ Although the effect of dropped packets on the receiving NETBLT could
+ not be completely eliminated, it was reduced somewhat by some changes
+ to the implementation. Data packets from the sending NETBLT are
+ guaranteed to be transmitted by buffer number, lowest number first.
+ In some cases, this allowed the receiving NETBLT to make retransmit-
+ request decisions for a buffer N, if packets for N were expected but
+ none were received at the time packets for a buffer N+M were
+ received. This optimization was somewhat complicated, but improved
+ NETBLT's performance in the face of missing packets. Unfortunately,
+ the dropped-packet problem remained until the NETBLT implementation
+ was ported to a SUN-3 workstation. The SUN is able to handle the
+ incoming packets quite well, dropping only 0.5% of the data packets
+ (as opposed to the PC's 15 - 20%).
+
+ Another problem with the Wideband network was its tendency to re-
+ order and delay packets. Dealing with these problems required
+ several changes in the implementation. Previously, the NETBLT
+ implementation was "optimized" to generate retransmit requests as
+ soon as possible, if possible not relying on expiration of a data
+ timer. For instance, when the receiving NETBLT received an LDATA
+ packet for a buffer N, and other packets in buffer N had not arrived,
+ the receiver would immediately generate a RESEND for the missing
+ packets. Similarly, under certain circumstances, the receiver would
+ generate a RESEND for a buffer N if packets for N were expected and
+ had not arrived before packets for a buffer N+M. Obviously, packet-
+ reordering made these "optimizations" generate retransmit requests
+ unnecessarily. In the first case, the implementation was changed to
+ no longer generate a retransmit request on receipt of an LDATA with
+ other packets missing in the buffer. In the second case, a data
+ timer was set with an updated (and presumably more accurate) value,
+ hopefully allowing any re-ordered packets to arrive before timing out
+ and generating a retransmit request.
+
+ It is difficult to accommodate Wideband network packet delay in the
+ NETBLT implementation. Packet delays tend to occur in multiples of
+ 600 milliseconds, due to the Wideband network's datagram reservation
+ scheme. A timer value calculation algorithm that used a fixed
+ variance on the order of 600 milliseconds would cause performance
+ degradation when packets were lost. On the other hand, short fixed
+ variance values would not react well to the long delays possible on
+ the Wideband net. Our solution has been to use an adaptive data
+ timer value calculation algorithm. The algorithm maintains an
+ average inter-packet arrival value, and uses that to determine the
+
+
+
+M. Lambert [Page 9]
+
+RFC 1030 Testing the NETBLT Protocol November 1987
+
+
+ data timer value. If the inter-packet arrival time increases, the
+ data timer value will lengthen.
+
+ At this point, testing proceeded between NETBLT implementations on a
+ SUN-3 workstation and an IBM PC/AT. The arrival of a Butterfly
+ Gateway at ISI eliminated the need for source-routed packets; some
+ performance improvement was also expected because the Butterfly
+ Gateway is optimized for IP datagram traffic.
+
+ In order to put the best Wideband network test results in context, a
+ short analysis follows, showing the best throughput expected on a
+ fully loaded channel. Again, a detailed analysis of the numbers that
+ follow appears at the end of this document.
+
+ The best possible datagram rate over the current Wideband
+ configuration is 24,054 bits per channel frame, or 3006 bytes every
+ 21.22 milliseconds. Since the transmission route begins and ends on
+ an Ethernet, the largest amount of data transmissible (after
+ accounting for packet header overhead) is 1438 bytes per packet.
+ This translates to approximately 2 packets per frame. Since we want
+ to avoid overflowing the channel, we should transmit slightly slower
+ than the channel frame rate of 21.2 milliseconds. We therefore came
+ up with a best possible throughput of 2 1438-byte packets every 22
+ milliseconds, or 1.05 megabits per second.
+
+ Because of possible software bugs in either the Butterfly Gateway or
+ the BSAT (gateway-to-earth-station interface), 1438-byte packets were
+ fragmented before transmission over the Wideband network, causing
+ packet delay and poor performance. The best throughput was achieved
+ with the following values:
+
+ transfer size 500,000 - 750,000 bytes
+
+
+ data packet size
+ 1432 bytes
+
+
+ buffer size 14320 bytes
+
+
+ burst size 5 packets
+
+
+ burst interval 55 milliseconds
+
+ Steady-state throughputs ranged from 926 kilobits per second to 942
+ kilobits per second, approximately 90% channel utilization. The
+
+
+
+M. Lambert [Page 10]
+
+RFC 1030 Testing the NETBLT Protocol November 1987
+
+
+ amount of data transmitted should have been an order of magnitude
+ higher, in order to get a longer steady-state period; unfortunately
+ at the time we were testing, the Ethernet interface of ISI's
+ Butterfly Gateway would lock up fairly quickly (in 40-60 seconds) at
+ packet rates of approximately 90 per second, forcing a gateway reset.
+ Transmissions therefore had to take less than this amount of time.
+ This problem has reportedly been fixed since the tests were
+ conducted.
+
+ In order to test the Wideband network under overload conditions, we
+ attempted several tests at rates of 5 1432-byte packets every 50
+ milliseconds. At this rate, the Wideband network ground to a halt as
+ four of the ten network BSATs immediately crashed and reset their
+ channel processor nodes. Apparently, the BSATs crash because the ESI
+ (Earth Station Interface), which sends data from the BSAT to the
+ satellite, stops its transmit clock to the BSAT if it runs out of
+ buffer space. The BIO interface connecting BSAT and ESI does not
+ tolerate this clock-stopping, and typically locks up, forcing the
+ channel processor node to reset. A more sophisticated interface,
+ allowing faster transmissions, is being installed in the near future.
+
+8. Future Directions
+
+ Some more testing needs to be performed over the Wideband Network in
+ order to get a complete analysis of NETBLT's performance. Once the
+ Butterfly Gateway Ethernet interface lockup problem described earlier
+ has been fixed, we want to perform transmissions of 10 to 50 million
+ bytes to get accurate steady-state throughput results. We also want
+ to run several NETBLT processes in parallel, each tuned to take a
+ fraction of the Wideband Network's available bandwidth. Hopefully,
+ this will demonstrate whether or not burst synchronization across
+ different NETBLT processes will cause network congestion or failure.
+ Once the BIO BSAT-ESI interface is upgraded, we will want to try for
+ higher throughputs, as well as greater hardware stability under
+ overload conditions.
+
+ As far as future directions of research into NETBLT, one important
+ area needs to be explored. A series of algorithms need to be
+ developed to allow dynamic selection and control of NETBLT's
+ transmission parameters (burst size, burst interval, and number of
+ outstanding buffers). Ideally, this dynamic control will not require
+ any information from outside sources such as gateways; instead,
+ NETBLT processes will use end-to-end information in order to make
+ transmission rate decisions in the face of noisy channels and network
+ congestion. Some research on dynamic rate control is taking place
+ now, but much more work needs done before the results can be
+ integrated into NETBLT.
+
+
+
+
+M. Lambert [Page 11]
+
+RFC 1030 Testing the NETBLT Protocol November 1987
+
+
+I. Wideband Bandwidth Analysis
+
+ Although the raw bandwidth of the Wideband Network is 3 megabits per
+ second, currently only about 1 megabit per second of it is available
+ to transmit data. The large amount of overhead is due to the channel
+ control strategy (which uses a fixed-width control subframe based on
+ the maximum number of stations sharing the channel) and the low-
+ performance BIO interface between BBN's BSAT (Butterfly Satellite
+ Interface) and Linkabit's ESI (Earth Station Interface). Higher-
+ performance BSMI interfaces are soon to be installed in all Wideband
+ sites, which should improve the amount of available bandwidth.
+
+ Bandwidth on the Wideband network is divided up into frames, each of
+ which has multiple subframes. A frame is 32768 channel symbols, at 2
+ bits per symbol. One frame is available for transmission every 21.22
+ milliseconds, giving a raw bandwidth of 65536 bits / 21.22 ms, or
+ 3.081 megabits per second.
+
+ Each frame contains two subframes, a control subframe and a data
+ subframe. The control subframe is subdivided into ten slots, one per
+ earth station. Control information takes up 200 symbols per station.
+ Because the communications interface between BSAT and ESI only runs
+ at 2 megabits per second, there must be a padding interval of 1263
+ symbols between each slot of information, bringing the total control
+ subframe size up to 1463 symbols x 10 stations, or 14630 symbols.
+ The data subframe then has 18138 symbols available. The maximum
+ datagram size is currently expressed as a 14-bit quantity, further
+ dropping the maximum amount of data in a frame to 16384 symbols.
+ After header information is taken into account, this value drops to
+ 16,036 symbols. At 2 bits per symbol, using a 3/4 coding rate, the
+ actual amount of usable data in a frame is 24,054 bits, or
+ approximately 3006 bytes. Thus the theoretical usable bandwidth is
+ 24,054 bits every 21.22 milliseconds, or 1.13 megabits per second.
+ Since the NETBLT implementations are running on Ethernet LANs
+ gatewayed to the Wideband network, the 3006 bytes per channel frame
+ of usable bandwidth translates to two maximum-sized (1500 bytes)
+ Ethernet packets per channel frame, or 1.045 megabits per second.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+M. Lambert [Page 12]
+
+RFC 1030 Testing the NETBLT Protocol November 1987
+
+
+II. Detailed Proteon Ring LAN Test Results
+
+ Following is a table of some of the test results gathered from
+ testing NETBLT between two IBM PC/ATs on a Proteon Token Ring LAN.
+ The table headers have the following definitions:
+
+
+ BS/BI burst size in packets and burst interval in
+ milliseconds
+
+
+ PSZ number of bytes in DATA/LDATA packet data segment
+
+
+ BFSZ number of bytes in NETBLT buffer
+
+
+ XFSZ number of kilobytes in transfer
+
+
+ NBUFS number of outstanding buffers
+
+
+ #LOSS number of data packets lost
+
+
+ #RXM number of data packets retransmitted
+
+
+ DTMOS number of data timeouts on receiving end
+
+
+ SPEED steady-state throughput in megabits per second
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+M. Lambert [Page 13]
+
+RFC 1030 Testing the NETBLT Protocol November 1987
+
+
+ BS/BI PSZ BFSZ XFSZ NBUFS #LOSS #RXM DTMOS SPEED
+
+ 5/25 1438 14380 1438 1 0 0 0 1.45
+ 5/25 1438 14380 1438 1 0 0 0 1.45
+ 5/30 1438 14380 1438 1 0 0 0 1.45
+ 5/30 1438 14380 1438 1 0 0 0 1.45
+ 5/35 1438 14380 1438 1 0 0 0 1.40
+ 5/35 1438 14380 1438 1 0 0 0 1.41
+ 5/40 1438 14380 1438 1 0 0 0 1.33
+ 5/40 1438 14380 1438 1 0 0 0 1.33
+
+ 5/25 1438 14380 1438 2 0 0 0 1.62
+
+ 5/25 1438 14380 1438 2 0 0 0 1.61
+ 5/30 1438 14380 1438 2 0 0 0 1.60
+ 5/30 1438 14380 1438 2 0 0 0 1.61
+ 5/34 1438 14380 1438 2 0 0 0 1.59
+ 5/35 1438 14380 1438 2 0 0 0 1.58
+
+ 5/25 1990 19900 1990 1 0 0 0 1.48
+ 5/25 1990 19900 1990 1 0 0 0 1.49
+ 5/30 1990 19900 1990 1 0 0 0 1.48
+ 5/30 1990 19900 1990 1 0 0 0 1.48
+ 5/35 1990 19900 1990 1 0 0 0 1.49
+ 5/35 1990 19900 1990 1 0 0 0 1.48
+ 5/40 1990 19900 1990 1 0 0 0 1.49
+ 5/40 1990 19900 1990 1 0 0 0 1.49
+ 5/45 1990 19900 1990 1 0 0 0 1.45
+ 5/45 1990 19900 1990 1 0 0 0 1.46
+
+ 5/25 1990 19900 1990 2 0 0 0 1.75
+ 5/25 1990 19900 1990 2 0 0 0 1.75
+ 5/30 1990 19900 1990 2 0 0 0 1.74
+ 5/30 1990 19900 1990 2 0 0 0 1.75
+ 5/35 1990 19900 1990 2 0 0 0 1.74
+ 5/35 1990 19900 1990 2 0 0 0 1.74
+ 5/40 1990 19900 1990 2 0 0 0 1.75
+ 5/40 1990 19900 1990 2 0 0 0 1.74
+ 5/43 1990 19900 1990 2 0 0 0 1.75
+ 5/43 1990 19900 1990 2 0 0 0 1.74
+ 5/43 1990 19900 1990 2 0 0 0 1.75
+ 5/44 1990 19900 1990 2 0 0 0 1.73
+ 5/44 1990 19900 1990 2 0 0 0 1.72
+ 5/45 1990 19900 1990 2 0 0 0 1.70
+ 5/45 1990 19900 1990 2 0 0 0 1.72
+
+
+
+
+
+
+M. Lambert [Page 14]
+
+RFC 1030 Testing the NETBLT Protocol November 1987
+
+
+III. Detailed Ethernet LAN Testing Results
+
+ Following is a table of some of the test results gathered from
+ testing NETBLT between two IBM PC/ATs on an Ethernet LAN. See
+ previous appendix for table header definitions.
+
+
+ BS/BI PSZ BFSZ XFSZ NBUFS #LOSS #RXM DTMOS SPEED
+
+ 5/30 1438 14380 1438 1 9 9 6 1.42
+ 5/30 1438 14380 1438 1 2 2 2 1.45
+ 5/30 1438 14380 1438 1 5 5 4 1.44
+ 5/35 1438 14380 1438 1 7 7 7 1.38
+ 5/35 1438 14380 1438 1 6 6 5 1.38
+ 5/40 1438 14380 1438 1 48 48 44 1.15
+ 5/40 1438 14380 1438 1 50 50 38 1.17
+ 5/40 1438 14380 1438 1 13 13 11 1.28
+ 5/40 1438 14380 1438 1 7 7 5 1.30
+
+ 5/30 1438 14380 1438 2 206 206 198 0.995
+ 5/30 1438 14380 1438 2 213 213 198 0.994
+ 5/40 1438 14380 1438 2 117 121 129 1.05
+ 5/40 1438 14380 1438 2 178 181 166 0.892
+ 5/40 1438 14380 1438 2 135 138 130 1.03
+ 5/45 1438 14380 1438 2 57 57 52 1.12
+ 5/45 1438 14380 1438 2 97 97 99 1.02
+ 5/45 1438 14380 1438 2 62 62 51 1.09
+
+ 5/15 512 10240 2048 1 6 6 4 0.909
+ 5/15 512 10240 2048 1 10 11 7 0.907
+ 5/18 512 10240 2048 1 11 11 8 0.891
+ 5/18 512 10240 2048 1 5 5 9 0.906
+ 5/19 512 10240 2048 1 3 3 3 0.905
+ 5/19 512 10240 2048 1 8 8 7 0.898
+ 5/20 512 10240 2048 1 7 7 4 0.876
+ 5/20 512 10240 2048 1 11 12 5 0.871
+ 5/20 512 10240 2048 1 8 9 5 0.874
+ 5/30 512 10240 2048 2 113 116 84 0.599
+ 5/30 512 10240 2048 2 20 20 14 0.661
+ 5/30 512 10240 2048 2 49 50 40 0.638
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+M. Lambert [Page 15]
+
+RFC 1030 Testing the NETBLT Protocol November 1987
+
+
+IV. Detailed Wideband Network Testing Results
+
+ Following is a table of some of the test results gathered from
+ testing NETBLT between an IBM PC/AT and a SUN-3 using the Wideband
+ satellite network. See previous appendix for table header
+ definitions.
+
+ BS/BI PSZ BFSZ XFSZ NBUFS #LOSS #RXM SPEED
+
+ 5/90 1400 14000 500 22 9 10 0.584
+ 5/90 1400 14000 500 22 12 12 0.576
+ 5/90 1400 14000 500 22 3 3 0.591
+ 5/90 1420 14200 500 22 12 12 0.591
+ 5/90 1420 14200 500 22 6 6 0.600
+ 5/90 1430 14300 500 22 9 10 0.600
+ 5/90 1430 14300 500 22 15 15 0.591
+ 5/90 1430 14300 500 22 12 12 0.590
+ 5/90 1432 14320 716 22 13 16 0.591
+ 5/90 1434 14340 717 22 33 147 0.483
+ 5/90 1436 14360 718 22 25 122 0.500
+ 5/90 1436 14360 718 22 25 109 0.512
+ 5/90 1436 14360 718 22 28 153 0.476
+ 5/90 1438 14380 719 22 6 109 0.533
+
+ 5/80 1432 14320 716 22 56 68 0.673
+ 5/80 1432 14320 716 22 14 14 0.666
+ 5/80 1432 14320 716 22 15 16 0.661
+ 5/60 1432 14320 716 22 19 22 0.856
+ 5/60 1432 14320 716 22 84 95 0.699
+ 5/60 1432 14320 716 22 18 21 0.871
+ 5/60 1432 14320 716 30 38 40 0.837
+ 5/60 1432 14320 716 30 25 26 0.869
+ 5/55 1432 14320 716 22 13 13 0.935
+ 5/55 1432 14320 716 22 25 25 0.926
+ 5/55 1432 14320 716 22 25 25 0.926
+ 5/55 1432 14320 716 22 20 20 0.932
+ 5/55 1432 14320 716 22 17 19 0.934
+ 5/55 1432 14320 716 22 13 14 0.942
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+M. Lambert [Page 16]
+