RFC 3222 (rfc3222) - Page 3 of 15

Terminology for Forwarding Information Base (FIB) based Router Performance

RFC 3222              FIB based Router Performance         December 2001


2. Overview

   In order to measure the forwarding information base-based router
   performance, different forwarding information bases (5.3) are
   installed in the router.  The two key elements describing the FIB are
   the FIB size (5.5) and FIB prefix distribution (5.7).  The forwarding
   performance of a router may be dependent upon these two primary
   factors, particularly if FIB prefix distributions tend towards longer
   network prefixes (5.1).  The FIB-dependent throughput, latency and
   frame loss rate (6.3, 6.4, 6.5), measured with fully meshed traffic
   flows [2], will reflect the change in performance of the router.
   Tests may need to be performed up to the maximum FIB size (6.1).

   When configuring the router for these measurements, the routes need
   to be manually entered into the router, or advertised via a routing
   protocol.  It may take some period of time (the FIB learning time
   (6.2)) before the router learns all the routes.

   When routes are advertised into the router, the routes should be
   advertised in such a way so that route aggregation (5.10) does not
   occur.  Also, the effect of a per-interface FIB cache (5.9) needs to
   be taken into account.

3. Existing Definitions

   [3] should be consulted before attempting to make use of this
   document.  [2] contains discussions of a number of terms relevant to
   the benchmarking of network interconnect devices and should also be
   consulted.

4. Definition Format

   The definition format is the equivalent to that defined in [3], and
   is repeated here for convenience:

   X.x Term to be defined. (e.g., Latency)

   Definition:
      The specific definition for the term.

   Discussion:
      A brief discussion about the term, it's application and any
      restrictions on measurement procedures.

   Measurement units:
      The units used to report measurements of this term, if applicable.





Trotter                      Informational