Network Test Campaign

A series of experiments have been planned to understand the performance and bottlenecks of the network devices (routers, switches, and computer interface cards). These will be conducted by the Electronics Research Group of the Department of Engineering. The first set of network tests were performed using the ERG JTAP test network, and will be later supplemented with data collected from the delivery network at the Forrester Hill site.

The purpose of this test campaign may be summarised as:

1. To assess the performance of the equipment being used
2. To provide base-line performance measurements for future reference
3. To develop tools and techniques for designing and testing high speed network software
4. To act as the first stage in the development of a transport protocol for video delivery

Applications developers may use this information to achieve optimum use of the network.
The information provided has been grouped into the following sections:

• Network Performance Tools
• Testing Local Area Network Performance
• Testing of Systems (Servers and Delivery Machines)
• Testing Wide Area Network Performance

A series of progress reports will be made available:

Test Conclusions (April 1997)

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