I have a requirement to provide an accurate means to demonstrate line performance over a flat layer2 1Gb point-to-point Ethernet circuit, approx 100 miles apart that seemingly goes through a number of hops over the distance.
The business requirement will need to demonstrate performance with an accuracy of min 8ms latency. The link will carry voice and data traffic whereby the service SLA should guarantee 1000Mb bandwidth.
What are the known accurate methods of measuring performance given these requirements?
I am aware of a number of metrics available that might possible form a test strategy but having Googled a bunch of info it can get overwhelming and i'm unclear of whether software like iPerth should be used, what's the benchmark for this scenario etc?
Best Answer
If you're trying to test 1xGE No Drop Rate and measure circuit delay within 8ms, I would use nuttcp to test bandwidth and iperf2 / mtr to test delay.
I would do the following...
Misc thoughts
Other answers have suggested using iperf2 alone; however, it doesn't have CLI options to adjust the UDP packet size. It also tends to demonstrate flaky performance at high speeds under MS Windows.
This Metro Ethernet Forum paper on testing carrier ethernet circuits will help provide a general understanding some of the tradeoffs you take when testing circuits.