End-to-End Performance Projects

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1. OWAMP (One-Way Ping)
   With the availability of GPS- and CDMA-based time sources, hosts have very accurate time sources; by standardizing a technique for collecting IPPM one-way active measurements, IPPM metrics may be collected across a far broader mesh of Internet paths than is currently possible. Widespread deployment of open OWAMP servers would make measurement of one-way delay as commonplace as measurement of round-trip time using an ICMP-based tool, like ping. Click here for a 2-page overview.
   
   
2. BWCTL (Bandwidth Test Controller)
   Scheduling bandwidth tests, like Iperf, can be very difficult -- testers at each end of the path need to agree upon a precise time to begin tests and they must each participate in activating the tests; else, the administrator at the remote site must grant the tester an account on a machine within their domain for some period of time. By using BWCTL to schedule such tests, administrators need only designate a machine in their domain for the tests and set policy regarding the duration of tests and which users may have access; after that, the BWCTL daemon process self-schedules and ensures that tests do not overlap. For more information, see http://e2epi.internet2.edu/bwctl/.
   
   
3. NDT (Network Diagnostic Tool)
   The Network Diagnostic Tool (NDT) is a client/server program that provides network configuration and performance testing to a users desktop or laptop computer.  The system is composed of a client program (command line or java applet) and a pair of server programs (a webserver and a testing/analysis engine).  Both command line and web-based clients communicate with a Web100-enhanced server to perform these diagnostic functions.  Multi-level results allow novice and expert users to view and understand the test results. Click here for a 2-page overview.
   
   
4. Thrulay
   This network capacity tester is used to measure the capacity, delay, and other performance metrics of a network by sending a bulk TCP or UDP stream across it. Special features include: (for TCP) the ability to measure round-trip delay along with throughput and (for UDP) the ability to measure one-way delay (with quantiles), packet loss, packet reordering, and reordering.
   
   
5. Performance Improvement Performance Evaluation System (piPEs)
   The E2E piPEs framework was the basis for much of the work of the Internet2 End-to-End Performance Initiative from 2003-2005. The E2E piPEs was a driving force in the coordination between Internet2 and GEANT to develop perfSONAR. Click here for a 2-page overview of piPEs.
   
   
6. H.323 Beacon
   H.323 Beacon project developed a tool that can be used to measure and monitor an H.323 Videoconference session. It is used to qualify an H.323 Videoconference session and as a debugging tool to troubleshoot H.323 application performance problems in the network and at the host. This project was developed, jointly, with researchers at Ohio State University/OARnet. Click here for a 2-page overview.
   
   
7. Case Studies
   Case studies are ways to turn problems individuals encounter into learning experiences or recommendations for our members. Several case studies have been developed and others are currently underway; links to the work are availabe here.
   
   
8. National Library of Medicine End-to-End Pilot Study
   "User Experience With The High Performance Internet Infrastructure" is a pilot study for the National Library of Medicine to better understand the use of the high performance Internet in the Health Care/Health Science community. The results of the pilot study will be used to: (1) inform the developers and the supporters of the infrastructure on the technological needs and challenges faced by the biomedical research and health care communities; and (2) encourage these communities to capitalize on the effective uses of the high performance Internet, particularly among non-users.
   
   
9. Performance Measurement Architecture (PMA)
   The PMA lays out the various aspects of an End-to-End Performance Measurement Architecture. End-to-end performance in the context of this document will not only include the traditional network portions of the path, but also the host computer/operating system and applications that make up the complete path as a performance bottleneck in any of these portions will affect the overall performance as seen by the end user.
   

• Detective
  Internet2 Detective offers computer users easy access to the status and capabilities of their current network connection by providing information about advanced network capabilities, including connectivity to an Internet2 backbone network, an estimate of available bandwidth and multicast capabilities.
  
  
• Pioneer Cakebox
  The goal of this project is to provide a cheap and easy method to do some basic network measurements between end points where Cakeboxes with the Envoy module are installed.
  
  
• Surveyor
  Surveyor is a measurement infrastructure that is being currently deployed at participating sites around the world. Based on standards work being done in the IETF's IPPM WG, Surveyor measures the performance of the Internet paths among participating organizations. The project is also developing methodologies and tools to analyze the performance data.
    

1. Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis (CAIDA)
   CAIDA, the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis, provides tools and analyses promoting the engineering and maintenance of a robust, scalable global Internet infrastructure.
   
   
2. The Data Intensive Distributed Computing Research Group (DIDC)
   The Data Intensive Distributed Computing Research Group at LBNL is doing research on mechanisms and services to efficiently move, select, and manage huge data sets in a distributed, or Data Grid environment. They are also working on tools for monitoring and analyzing distributed system performance (called the Distributed Monitoring Framework (DMF).
   
   
3. The Enable Project
   The Enable project is a DOE Research Project to build an adaptive monitoring infrastructure, a monitor data publishing mechanism, and monitor data analysis tools. They are developing a "Grid" service to provide both of these capabilities. The overall goal of this work is to provide manageability, reliability, and adaptability for high performance applications running over WANs.
   
   
4. The Global Grid Forum (GGF) Grid Performance Area
   This working group focuses on various issues related to the measurement and analysis of the end-to-end performance of parallel and distributed applications.
   
   
5. The Great Plains Network Measurement Project
   The goal of this project, in collaboration with the Quilt Measurement project, is to provide access to interactive tools and network measurement applications, to collect network measurement data, and to provide that data to researchers in a public formum for analysis and study.
   
   
6. Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Internet Protocol Performance Metrics Working Group (IPPM WG)
   The IPPM WG will develop a set of standard metrics that can be applied to the quality, performance, and reliability of Internet data delivery services. These metrics will be designed such that they can be performed by network operators, end users, or independent testing groups. The IPPM WG is working with universities and other organizations to develop the software and measurement infrastructure that will be deployed at key places in the Internet to measure and report relevant metrics.
   
   
7. The Information Society Technologies (IST) Programme TEQUILA Project
   The objective of the TEQUILA project is to study, specify, implement, and validate a set of service definition and traffic engineering tools to obtain quantitative end-to-end Quality of Service guarantees through careful planning, dimensioning, and dynamic control of scaleable and simple qualitative traffic management techniques within the Internet (i.e. diffserv).
   
   
8. National Laboratory for Applied Network Research (NLANR) Distributed Application Support Team (DAST)
   The DAST offers support for researchers working with high-performance network applications and assists in the development of distributed applications and tools.
   
   
9. NLANR Engineering Services (ES)
   The Engineering Services team, located at CMU/PSC, provides in-depth information and technical support for connecting to and effectively using high-performance WANs to campus network engineers, gigapop operators, and other high-performance networking professionals.
   
   
10. NLANR Measurement and Network Analysis (MNA) Group
    The goal of the NLANR MNA Group is to characterize the behavior of high-performance connection (HPC) networks; to this end, they have developed the Network Analysis Infrastructure (NAI). Two projects form the core of this research: the Passive Measurement and Analysis (PMA) project and the Active Measurement Project (AMP).
    
    
11. Net100
    Net100 is developing a solution that will allow researchers to achieve the highest possible data transfer rates without needing the assistance of networking experts and programmers. Built on Web100 (PSC, NCAR) and NetLogger (LBNL), Net100 modifies operating systems to respond dynamically to network conditions and make adjustments in network transfers, sending data as fast as the network will allow.
    
    
12. PPDG/GriPhyN/iVDGL Monitoring Group
    Grid computing consists of the coordinated use of large sets of diverse, geographically-distributed resources for high-performance computation. The ability to monitor distributed computing components is critical for enabling high-performance distributed computing. The goal of this group is to coordinate the monitoring effort between GriPhyN/iVDGL and PPDG as they build a data grid for physics applications.
    
    
13. The System, Network, Usage, and Performance Interface (SNUPI)
    The SNUPI provides an interface for resource use reporting for heterogeneous computer systems, including Linux clusters. SNUPI provides data collection tools, recommended RDBMS schema design, and Perl-DBI scripts suitable for portal services to deliver reports at the system, user, and job for heterogeneous systems across the enterprise, including Linux clusters.
    
    
14. Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) Internet End-to-end Performance Monitoring (IEPM) Group
    The IEPM group at SLAC is monitoring network connectivity and end-to-end performance for sites involved in High-Energy Nuclear and Particle Physics. As such, the members of the group work closely with the Energy Sciences Network (ESnet), Internet2, the U.S. DOE-funded laboratories, laboratories throughout the world, and Institutes and Universities throughout the world involved in data intensive science.
    
    
15. Web100
    The Web100 project will provide the software and tools necessary for end-hosts to automatically and transparently achieve high-bandwidth data rates (100 Mbps) over the high-performance research networks.

This list contains projects that have been identified as having value or interest to the E2Epi community. Some of these are from sources outside the Internet2 membership. (top)