1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656
657
658
659
660
661
662
663
664
665
666
667
668
669
670
671
672
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706
707
708
709
710
711
712
713
714
715
716
717
718
719
720
721
722
723
724
725
726
727
728
729
730
731
732
733
734
735
736
737
738
739
740
741
742
743
744
745
746
747
748
749
750
751
752
753
754
755
756
757
758
759
760
761
762
763
764
765
766
767
768
769
770
771
772
773
774
775
776
777
778
779
780
781
782
783
784
785
786
787
788
789
790
791
792
793
794
795
796
797
798
799
800
801
802
803
804
805
806
807
808
809
810
811
812
813
814
815
816
817
818
819
820
821
822
823
824
825
826
827
828
829
830
831
832
833
834
835
836
837
838
839
840
841
842
843
844
845
846
847
848
849
850
851
852
853
854
855
856
857
858
859
860
861
862
863
864
865
866
867
868
869
870
871
872
873
874
875
876
877
878
879
880
881
882
883
884
885
886
887
888
889
890
891
892
893
894
895
896
897
898
899
900
901
902
903
904
905
906
907
908
909
910
911
912
913
914
915
916
917
918
919
920
921
922
923
924
925
926
927
928
929
930
931
932
933
934
935
936
937
938
939
940
941
942
943
944
945
946
947
948
949
950
951
952
953
954
955
956
957
958
959
960
961
962
963
964
965
966
967
968
969
970
971
972
973
974
975
976
977
978
979
980
981
982
983
984
985
986
987
988
989
990
991
992
993
994
995
996
997
998
999
1000
1001
1002
1003
1004
1005
1006
1007
1008
1009
1010
1011
|
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) A. Morton, Ed.
Request for Comments: 5835 AT&T Labs
Category: Informational S. Van den Berghe, Ed.
ISSN: 2070-1721 Alcatel-Lucent
April 2010
Framework for Metric Composition
Abstract
This memo describes a detailed framework for composing and
aggregating metrics (both in time and in space) originally defined by
the IP Performance Metrics (IPPM), RFC 2330, and developed by the
IETF. This new framework memo describes the generic composition and
aggregation mechanisms. The memo provides a basis for additional
documents that implement the framework to define detailed
compositions and aggregations of metrics that are useful in practice.
Status of This Memo
This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
published for informational purposes.
This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has
received public review and has been approved for publication by the
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Not all documents
approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5835.
Morton and Van den Berghe Informational [Page 1]
^L
RFC 5835 Framework for Metric Composition April 2010
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2010 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
(http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
publication of this document. Please review these documents
carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must
include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
described in the Simplified BSD License.
This document may contain material from IETF Documents or IETF
Contributions published or made publicly available before November
10, 2008. The person(s) controlling the copyright in some of this
material may not have granted the IETF Trust the right to allow
modifications of such material outside the IETF Standards Process.
Without obtaining an adequate license from the person(s) controlling
the copyright in such materials, this document may not be modified
outside the IETF Standards Process, and derivative works of it may
not be created outside the IETF Standards Process, except to format
it for publication as an RFC or to translate it into languages other
than English.
Morton and Van den Berghe Informational [Page 2]
^L
RFC 5835 Framework for Metric Composition April 2010
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ....................................................4
1.1. Motivation .................................................4
1.1.1. Reducing Measurement Overhead .......................4
1.1.2. Measurement Re-Use ..................................5
1.1.3. Data Reduction and Consolidation ....................5
1.1.4. Implications on Measurement Design and Reporting ....6
2. Requirements Language ...........................................6
3. Purpose and Scope ...............................................6
4. Terminology .....................................................7
4.1. Measurement Point ..........................................7
4.2. Complete Path ..............................................7
4.3. Complete Path Metric .......................................7
4.4. Complete Time Interval .....................................7
4.5. Composed Metric ............................................7
4.6. Composition Function .......................................7
4.7. Ground Truth ...............................................8
4.8. Interval ...................................................8
4.9. Sub-Interval ...............................................8
4.10. Sub-Path ..................................................8
4.11. Sub-Path Metrics ..........................................8
5. Description of Metric Types .....................................9
5.1. Temporal Aggregation Description ...........................9
5.2. Spatial Aggregation Description ............................9
5.3. Spatial Composition Description ...........................10
5.4. Help Metrics ..............................................10
5.5. Higher-Order Composition ..................................11
6. Requirements for Composed Metrics ..............................11
6.1. Note on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) ................12
7. Guidelines for Defining Composed Metrics .......................12
7.1. Ground Truth: Comparison with Other IPPM Metrics ..........12
7.1.1. Ground Truth for Temporal Aggregation ..............14
7.1.2. Ground Truth for Spatial Aggregation ...............15
7.2. Deviation from the Ground Truth ...........................15
7.3. Incomplete Information ....................................15
7.4. Time-Varying Metrics ......................................15
8. Security Considerations ........................................16
9. Acknowledgements ...............................................16
10. References ....................................................16
10.1. Normative References .....................................16
10.2. Informative References ...................................17
Morton and Van den Berghe Informational [Page 3]
^L
RFC 5835 Framework for Metric Composition April 2010
1. Introduction
The IP Performance Metrics (IPPM) framework [RFC2330] describes two
forms of metric composition, spatial and temporal. The text also
suggests that the concepts of the analytical framework (or A-frame)
would help to develop useful relationships to derive the composed
metrics from real metrics. The effectiveness of composed metrics is
dependent on their usefulness in analysis and applicability to
practical measurement circumstances.
This memo expands on the notion of composition, and provides a
detailed framework for several classes of metrics that were described
in the original IPPM framework. The classes include temporal
aggregation, spatial aggregation, and spatial composition.
1.1. Motivation
Network operators have deployed measurement systems to serve many
purposes, including performance monitoring, maintenance support,
network engineering, and reporting performance to customers. The
collection of elementary measurements alone is not enough to
understand a network's behaviour. In general, measurements need to
be post-processed to present the most relevant information for each
purpose. The first step is often a process of "composition" of
single measurements or measurement sets into other forms.
Composition and aggregation present several more post-processing
opportunities to the network operator, and we describe the key
motivations below.
1.1.1. Reducing Measurement Overhead
A network's measurement possibilities scale upward with the square of
the number of nodes. But each measurement implies overhead, in terms
of the storage for the results, the traffic on the network (assuming
active methods), and the operation and administration of the
measurement system itself. In a large network, it is impossible to
perform measurements from each node to all others.
An individual network operator should be able to organize their
measurement paths along the lines of physical topology, or routing
areas/Autonomous Systems, and thus minimize dependencies and overlap
between different measurement paths. This way, the sheer number of
measurements can be reduced, as long as the operator has a set of
methods to estimate performance between any particular pair of nodes
when needed.
Morton and Van den Berghe Informational [Page 4]
^L
RFC 5835 Framework for Metric Composition April 2010
Composition and aggregation play a key role when the path of interest
spans multiple networks, and where each operator conducts their own
measurements. Here, the complete path performance may be estimated
from measurements on the component parts.
Operators that take advantage of the composition and aggregation
methods recognize that the estimates may exhibit some additional
error beyond that inherent in the measurements themselves, and so
they are making a trade-off to achieve reasonable measurement system
overhead.
1.1.2. Measurement Re-Use
There are many different measurement users, each bringing specific
requirements for the reporting timescale. Network managers and
maintenance forces prefer to see results presented very rapidly, to
detect problems quickly or see if their action has corrected a
problem. On the other hand, network capacity planners and even
network users sometimes prefer a long-term view of performance, for
example to check trends. How can one set of measurements serve both
needs?
The answer lies in temporal aggregation, where the short-term
measurements needed by the operations community are combined to
estimate a longer-term result for others. Also, problems with the
measurement system itself may be isolated to one or more of the
short-term measurements, rather than possibly invalidating an entire
long-term measurement if the problem was undetected.
1.1.3. Data Reduction and Consolidation
Another motivation is data reduction. Assume there is a network in
which delay measurements are performed among a subset of its nodes.
A network manager might ask whether there is a problem with the
network delay in general. It would be desirable to obtain a single
value that gives an indication of the overall network delay. Spatial
aggregation methods would address this need, and can produce the
desired "single figure of merit" asked for, which may also be useful
in trend analysis.
The overall value would be calculated from the elementary delay
measurements, but it is not obvious how: for example, it may not be
reasonable to average all delay measurements, as some paths (e.g.,
those having a higher bandwidth or more important customers) might be
considered more critical than others.
Morton and Van den Berghe Informational [Page 5]
^L
RFC 5835 Framework for Metric Composition April 2010
Metric composition can help to provide, from raw measurement data,
some tangible, well-understood and agreed-upon information about the
service guarantees provided by a network. Such information can be
used in the Service Level Agreement/Service Level Specification
(SLA/SLS) contracts between a service provider and its customers.
1.1.4. Implications on Measurement Design and Reporting
If a network measurement system operator anticipates needing to
produce overall metrics by composition, then it is prudent to keep
that requirement in mind when considering the measurement design and
sampling plan. Also, certain summary statistics are more conducive
to composition than others, and this figures prominently in the
design of measurements and when reporting the results.
2. Requirements Language
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119].
3. Purpose and Scope
The purpose of this memo is to provide a common framework for the
various classes of metrics that are composed from primary metrics.
The scope is limited to the definitions of metrics that are composed
from primary metrics using a deterministic function. Key information
about each composed metric is included, such as the assumptions under
which the relationship holds and possible sources of
error/circumstances where the composition may fail.
At this time, the scope of effort is limited to composed metrics for
packet loss, delay, and delay variation, as defined in [RFC2679],
[RFC2680], [RFC2681], [RFC3393], [RFC5481], and the comparable
metrics in [Y.1540]. Composition of packet reordering metrics
[RFC4737] and duplication metrics [RFC5560] are considered research
topics at the time this memo was prepared, and are beyond the scope
of this document.
This memo will retain the terminology of the IPPM Framework [RFC2330]
as much as possible, but will extend the terminology when necessary.
It is assumed that the reader is familiar with the concepts
introduced in [RFC2330], as they will not be repeated here.
Morton and Van den Berghe Informational [Page 6]
^L
RFC 5835 Framework for Metric Composition April 2010
4. Terminology
This section defines the terminology applicable to the processes of
metric composition and aggregation.
4.1. Measurement Point
A measurement point is the logical or physical location where packet
observations are made. The term "measurement point" is synonymous
with the term "observation position" used in [RFC2330] when
describing the notion of wire time. A measurement point may be at
the boundary between a host and an adjacent link (physical), or it
may be within a host (logical) that performs measurements where the
difference between host time and wire time is understood.
4.2. Complete Path
The complete path is the actual path that a packet would follow as it
travels from the packet's Source to its Destination. A complete path
may span the administrative boundaries of one or more networks.
4.3. Complete Path Metric
The complete path metric is the Source-to-Destination metric that a
composed metric attempts to estimate. A complete path metric
represents the ground-truth for a composed metric.
4.4. Complete Time Interval
The complete time interval is comprised of two or more contiguous
sub-intervals, and is the interval whose performance will be
estimated through temporal aggregation.
4.5. Composed Metric
A composed metric is an estimate of an actual metric describing the
performance of a path over some time interval. A composed metric is
derived from other metrics by applying a deterministic process or
function (e.g., a composition function). The process may use metrics
that are identical to the metric being composed, or metrics that are
dissimilar, or some combination of both types.
4.6. Composition Function
A composition function is a deterministic process applied to
individual metrics to derive another metric (such as a composed
metric).
Morton and Van den Berghe Informational [Page 7]
^L
RFC 5835 Framework for Metric Composition April 2010
4.7. Ground Truth
As applied here, the notion of "ground truth" is defined as the
actual performance of a network path over some time interval. The
ground truth is a metric on the (unavailable) packet transfer
information for the desired path and time interval that a composed
metric seeks to estimate.
4.8. Interval
An interval refers to a span of time.
4.9. Sub-Interval
A sub-interval is a time interval that is included in another
interval.
4.10. Sub-Path
A sub-path is a portion of the complete path where at least the
sub-path Source and Destination hosts are constituents of the
complete path. We say that such a sub-path is "involved" in the
complete path.
Since sub-paths terminate on hosts, it is important to describe how
sub-paths are considered to be joined. In practice, the Source and
Destination hosts may perform the function of measurement points.
If the Destination and Source hosts of two adjoining paths are
co-located and the link between them would contribute negligible
performance, then these hosts can be considered equivalent (even if
there is no physical link between them, this is a practical
concession).
If the Destination and Source hosts of two adjoining paths have a
link between them that contributes to the complete path performance,
then the link and hosts constitute another sub-path that is involved
in the complete path, and should be characterized and included in the
composed metric.
4.11. Sub-Path Metrics
A sub-path path metric is an element of the process to derive a
composed metric, quantifying some aspect of the performance of a
particular sub-path from its Source to Destination.
Morton and Van den Berghe Informational [Page 8]
^L
RFC 5835 Framework for Metric Composition April 2010
5. Description of Metric Types
This section defines the various classes of composition. There are
two classes more accurately described as aggregation over time and
space, and the third involves concatenation in space.
5.1. Temporal Aggregation Description
Aggregation in time is defined as the composition of metrics with the
same type and scope obtained in different time instants or time
windows. For example, starting from a time series of the
measurements of maximum and minimum one-way delay (OWD) on a certain
network path obtained over 5-minute intervals, we obtain a time
series measurement with a coarser resolution (60 minutes) by taking
the maximum of 12 consecutive 5-minute maxima and the minimum of 12
consecutive 5-minute minima.
The main reason for doing time aggregation is to reduce the amount of
data that has to be stored, and make the visualization/spotting of
regular cycles and/or growing or decreasing trends easier. Another
useful application is to detect anomalies or abnormal changes in the
network characteristics.
In RFC 2330, the term "temporal composition" is introduced and
differs from temporal aggregation in that it refers to methodologies
to predict future metrics on the basis of past observations (of the
same metrics), exploiting the time correlation that certain metrics
can exhibit. We do not consider this type of composition here.
5.2. Spatial Aggregation Description
Aggregation in space is defined as the combination of metrics of the
same type and different scope, in order to estimate the overall
performance of a larger network. This combination may involve
weighing the contributions of the input metrics.
Suppose we want to compose the average one-way delay (OWD)
experienced by flows traversing all the origin-destination (OD) pairs
of a network (where the inputs are already metric "statistics").
Since we wish to include the effect of the traffic matrix on the
result, it makes sense to weight each metric according to the traffic
carried on the corresponding OD pair:
OWD_sum=f1*OWD_1+f2*OWD_2+...+fn*OWD_n
where fi=load_OD_i/total_load.
Morton and Van den Berghe Informational [Page 9]
^L
RFC 5835 Framework for Metric Composition April 2010
A simple average OWD across all network OD pairs would not use the
traffic weighting.
Another example metric that is "aggregated in space" is the maximum
edge-to-edge delay across a single network. Assume that a Service
Provider wants to advertise the maximum delay that transit traffic
will experience while passing through his/her network. There can be
multiple edge-to-edge paths across a network, and the Service
Provider chooses either to publish a list of delays (each
corresponding to a specific edge-to-edge path), or publish a single
maximum value. The latter approach simplifies the publication of
measurement information, and may be sufficient for some purposes.
Similar operations can be provided to other metrics, e.g., "maximum
edge-to-edge packet loss", etc.
We suggest that space aggregation is generally useful to obtain a
summary view of the behaviour of large network portions, or of
coarser aggregates in general. The metric collection time instant,
i.e., the metric collection time window of measured metrics, is not
considered in space aggregation. We assume that either it is
consistent for all the composed metrics, e.g., compose a set of
average delays all referring to the same time window, or the time
window of each composed metric does not affect the aggregated metric.
5.3. Spatial Composition Description
Concatenation in space is defined as the composition of metrics of
same type with (ideally) different spatial scope, so that the
resulting metric is representative of what the metric would be if
obtained with a direct measurement over the sequence of the several
spatial scopes. An example is the sum of mean OWDs of adjacent edge-
to-edge networks, where the intermediate edge points are close to
each other or happen to be the same. In this way, we can for example
estimate OWD_AC starting from the knowledge of OWD_AB and OWD_BC.
Note that there may be small gaps in measurement coverage; likewise,
there may be small overlaps (e.g., the link where test equipment
connects to the network).
One key difference from examples of aggregation in space is that all
sub-paths contribute equally to the composed metric, independent of
the traffic load present.
5.4. Help Metrics
In practice, there is often the need to compute a new metric using
one or more metrics with the same spatial and time scope. For
example, the metric rtt_sample_variance may be computed from two
different metrics: the help metrics rtt_square_sum and the rtt_sum.
Morton and Van den Berghe Informational [Page 10]
^L
RFC 5835 Framework for Metric Composition April 2010
The process of using help metrics is a simple calculation and not an
aggregation or a concatenation, and will not be investigated further
in this memo.
5.5. Higher-Order Composition
Composed metrics might themselves be subject to further steps of
composition or aggregation. An example would be the delay of a
maximal path obtained through the spatial composition of several
composed delays for each complete path in the maximal path (obtained
through spatial composition). All requirements for first-order
composition metrics apply to higher-order composition.
An example using temporal aggregation: twelve 5-minute metrics are
aggregated to estimate the performance over an hour. The second step
of aggregation would take 24 hourly metrics and estimate the
performance over a day.
6. Requirements for Composed Metrics
The definitions for all composed metrics MUST include sections to
treat the following topics.
The description of each metric will clearly state:
1. the definition (and statistic, where appropriate);
2. the composition or aggregation relationship;
3. the specific conjecture on which the relationship is based and
assumptions of the statistical model of the process being
measured, if any (see [RFC2330], Section 12);
4. a justification of practical utility or usefulness for analysis
using the A-frame concepts;
5. one or more examples of how the conjecture could be incorrect and
lead to inaccuracy;
6. the information to be reported.
For each metric, the applicable circumstances will be defined, in
terms of whether the composition or aggregation:
o Requires homogeneity of measurement methodologies, or can allow a
degree of flexibility (e.g., active or passive methods produce the
"same" metric). Also, the applicable sending streams will be
specified, such as Poisson, Periodic, or both.
Morton and Van den Berghe Informational [Page 11]
^L
RFC 5835 Framework for Metric Composition April 2010
o Needs information or access that will only be available within an
operator's network, or is applicable to inter-network composition.
o Requires precisely synchronized measurement time intervals in all
component metrics, or perhaps only loosely synchronized time
intervals, or has no timing requirements at all.
o Requires assumption of component metric independence with regard
to the metric being defined/composed, or other assumptions.
o Has known sources of inaccuracy/error and identifies the sources.
6.1. Note on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
If one or more components of the composition process are encumbered
by Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), then the resulting composed
metrics may be encumbered as well. See BCP 79 [RFC3979] for IETF
policies on IPR disclosure.
7. Guidelines for Defining Composed Metrics
7.1. Ground Truth: Comparison with Other IPPM Metrics
Figure 1 illustrates the process to derive a metric using spatial
composition, and compares the composed metric to other IPPM metrics.
Metrics <M1, M2, M3> describe the performance of sub-paths between
the Source and Destination of interest during time interval <T, Tf>.
These metrics are the inputs for a composition function that produces
a composed metric.
Morton and Van den Berghe Informational [Page 12]
^L
RFC 5835 Framework for Metric Composition April 2010
Sub-Path Metrics
++ M1 ++ ++ M2 ++ ++ M3 ++
Src ||.......|| ||.......|| ||.......|| Dst
++ `. ++ ++ | ++ ++ .' ++
`. | .-'
`-. | .'
`._..|.._.'
,-' `-.
,' `.
| Composition |
\ Function '
`._ _,'
`--.....--'
|
++ | ++
Src ||...............................|| Dst
++ Composed Metric ++
++ Complete Path Metric ++
Src ||...............................|| Dst
++ ++
Spatial Metric
++ S1 ++ S2 ++ S3 ++
Src ||........||.........||..........|| Dst
++ ++ ++ ++
Figure 1: Comparison with Other IPPM Metrics
The composed metric is an estimate of an actual metric collected over
the complete Source-to-Destination path. We say that the complete
path metric represents the ground truth for the composed metric. In
other words, composed metrics seek to minimize error with regard to
the complete path metric.
Further, we observe that a spatial metric [RFC5644] collected for
packets traveling over the same set of sub-paths provides a basis for
the ground truth of the individual sub-path metrics. We note that
mathematical operations may be necessary to isolate the performance
of each sub-path.
Next, we consider multiparty metrics (as defined in [RFC5644]) and
their spatial composition. Measurements to each of the receivers
produce an element of the one-to-group metric. These elements can be
composed from sub-path metrics, and the composed metrics can be
combined to create a composed one-to-group metric. Figure 2
illustrates this process.
Morton and Van den Berghe Informational [Page 13]
^L
RFC 5835 Framework for Metric Composition April 2010
Sub-Path Metrics
++ M1 ++ ++ M2 ++ ++ M3 ++
Src ||.......|| ||.......|| ||.......||Rcvr1
++ ++ ++`. ++ ++ ++
`-.
M4`.++ ++ M5 ++
|| ||.......||Rcvr2
++ ++`. ++
`-.
M6`.++
||Rcvr3
++
One-to-Group Metric
++ ++ ++ ++
Src ||........||.........||..........||Rcvr1
++ ++. ++ ++
`-.
`-. ++ ++
`-||..........||Rcvr2
++. ++
`-.
`-. ++
`-.||Rcvr3
++
Figure 2: Composition of One-to-Group Metrics
Here, sub-path metrics M1, M2, and M3 are combined using a
relationship to compose the metric applicable to the Src-Rcvr1 path.
Similarly, M1, M4, and M5 are used to compose the Src-Rcvr2 metric
and M1, M4, and M6 compose the Src-Rcvr3 metric.
The composed one-to-group metric would list the Src-Rcvr metrics for
each receiver in the group:
(Composed-Rcvr1, Composed-Rcvr2, Composed-Rcvr3)
The ground truth for this composed metric is of course an actual one-
to-group metric, where a single Source packet has been measured after
traversing the complete paths to the various receivers.
7.1.1. Ground Truth for Temporal Aggregation
Temporal aggregation involves measurements made over sub-intervals of
the complete time interval between the same Source and Destination.
Therefore, the ground truth is the metric measured over the desired
interval.
Morton and Van den Berghe Informational [Page 14]
^L
RFC 5835 Framework for Metric Composition April 2010
7.1.2. Ground Truth for Spatial Aggregation
Spatial aggregation combines many measurements using a weighting
function to provide the same emphasis as though the measurements were
based on actual traffic, with inherent weights. Therefore, the
ground truth is the metric measured on the actual traffic instead of
the active streams that sample the performance.
7.2. Deviation from the Ground Truth
A metric composition can deviate from the ground truth for several
reasons. Two main aspects are:
o The propagation of the inaccuracies of the underlying measurements
when composing the metric. As part of the composition function,
errors of measurements might propagate. Where possible, this
analysis should be made and included with the description of each
metric.
o A difference in scope. When concatenating many active measurement
results (from two or more sub-paths) to obtain the complete path
metric, the actual measured path will not be identical to the
complete path. It is in general difficult to quantify this
deviation with exactness, but a metric definition might identify
guidelines for keeping the deviation as small as possible.
The description of the metric composition MUST include a section
identifying the deviation from the ground truth.
7.3. Incomplete Information
In practice, when measurements cannot be initiated on a sub-path or
during a particular measurement interval (and perhaps the measurement
system gives up during the test interval), then there will not be a
value for the sub-path reported, and the result SHOULD be recorded as
"undefined".
7.4. Time-Varying Metrics
The measured values of many metrics depend on time-variant factors,
such as the level of network traffic on the Source-to-Destination
path. Traffic levels often exhibit diurnal (or daily) variation, but
a 24-hour measurement interval would obscure it. Temporal
aggregation of hourly results to estimate the daily metric would have
the same effect, and so the same cautions are warranted.
Morton and Van den Berghe Informational [Page 15]
^L
RFC 5835 Framework for Metric Composition April 2010
Some metrics are predominantly* time-invariant, such as the actual
minimum one-way delay of a fixed path, and therefore temporal
aggregation does not obscure the results as long as the path is
stable. However, paths do vary, and sometimes on less predictable
time intervals than traffic variations. (* Note: It is recognized
that propagation delay on transmission facilities may have diurnal,
seasonal, and even longer-term variations.)
8. Security Considerations
The security considerations that apply to any active measurement of
live networks are relevant here as well. See [RFC4656] and
[RFC5357].
The exchange of sub-path measurements among network providers may be
a source of concern, and the information should be sufficiently
anonymized to avoid revealing unnecessary operational details (e.g.,
the network addresses of measurement devices). However, the schema
for measurement exchange is beyond the scope of this memo and likely
to be covered by bilateral agreements for some time to come.
9. Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Maurizio Molina, Andy Van Maele,
Andreas Haneman, Igor Velimirovic, Andreas Solberg, Athanassios
Liakopulos, David Schitz, Nicolas Simar, and the Geant2 Project. We
also acknowledge comments and suggestions from Phil Chimento, Emile
Stephan, Lei Liang, Stephen Wolff, Reza Fardid, Loki Jorgenson, and
Alan Clark.
10. References
10.1. Normative References
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
[RFC2330] Paxson, V., Almes, G., Mahdavi, J., and M. Mathis,
"Framework for IP Performance Metrics", RFC 2330,
May 1998.
[RFC3979] Bradner, S., Ed., "Intellectual Property Rights in IETF
Technology", BCP 79, RFC 3979, March 2005.
[RFC4656] Shalunov, S., Teitelbaum, B., Karp, A., Boote, J., and
M. Zekauskas, "A One-way Active Measurement Protocol
(OWAMP)", RFC 4656, September 2006.
Morton and Van den Berghe Informational [Page 16]
^L
RFC 5835 Framework for Metric Composition April 2010
[RFC5357] Hedayat, K., Krzanowski, R., Morton, A., Yum, K., and
J. Babiarz, "A Two-Way Active Measurement Protocol
(TWAMP)", RFC 5357, October 2008.
10.2. Informative References
[RFC2679] Almes, G., Kalidindi, S., and M. Zekauskas, "A One-way
Delay Metric for IPPM", RFC 2679, September 1999.
[RFC2680] Almes, G., Kalidindi, S., and M. Zekauskas, "A One-way
Packet Loss Metric for IPPM", RFC 2680, September 1999.
[RFC2681] Almes, G., Kalidindi, S., and M. Zekauskas, "A Round-trip
Delay Metric for IPPM", RFC 2681, September 1999.
[RFC3393] Demichelis, C. and P. Chimento, "IP Packet Delay
Variation Metric for IP Performance Metrics (IPPM)",
RFC 3393, November 2002.
[RFC4737] Morton, A., Ciavattone, L., Ramachandran, G., Shalunov,
S., and J. Perser, "Packet Reordering Metrics", RFC 4737,
November 2006.
[RFC5481] Morton, A. and B. Claise, "Packet Delay Variation
Applicability Statement", RFC 5481, March 2009.
[RFC5560] Uijterwaal, H., "A One-Way Packet Duplication Metric",
RFC 5560, May 2009.
[RFC5644] Stephan, E., Liang, L., and A. Morton, "IP Performance
Metrics (IPPM): Spatial and Multicast", RFC 5644,
October 2009.
[Y.1540] ITU-T Recommendation Y.1540, "Internet protocol data
communication service - IP packet transfer and
availability performance parameters", November 2007.
Morton and Van den Berghe Informational [Page 17]
^L
RFC 5835 Framework for Metric Composition April 2010
Authors' Addresses
Al Morton (editor)
AT&T Labs
200 Laurel Avenue South
Middletown, NJ 07748
USA
Phone: +1 732 420 1571
Fax: +1 732 368 1192
EMail: acmorton@att.com
URI: http://home.comcast.net/~acmacm/
Steven Van den Berghe (editor)
Alcatel-Lucent
Copernicuslaan 50
Antwerp 2018
Belgium
Phone: +32 3 240 3983
EMail: steven.van_den_berghe@alcatel-lucent.com
Morton and Van den Berghe Informational [Page 18]
^L
|