RFC 3511 (rfc3511) - Page 2 of 34
Benchmarking Methodology for Firewall Performance
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 3511 Methodology for Firewall Performance April 2003
4.10 TCP Stack Considerations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5. Benchmarking Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5.1 IP throughput. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
5.2 Concurrent TCP Connection Capacity . . . . . . . . . . . 9
5.3 Maximum TCP Connection Establishment Rate. . . . . . . . 12
5.4 Maximum TCP Connection Tear Down Rate. . . . . . . . . . 14
5.5 Denial Of Service Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
5.6 HTTP Transfer Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
5.7 Maximum HTTP Transaction Rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
5.8 Illegal Traffic Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
5.9 IP Fragmentation Handling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
5.10 Latency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
6. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
6.1 Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
6.2 Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
7. Security Consideration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Appendix A - HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) . . . . . . . . 31
Appendix B - Connection Establishment Time Measurements . . . . 31
Appendix C - Connection Tear Down Time Measurements . . . . . . 32
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Full Copyright Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
1. Introduction
This document provides methodologies for the performance benchmarking
of firewalls. It covers four areas: forwarding, connection, latency
and filtering. In addition to defining tests, this document also
describes specific formats for reporting test results.
A previous document, "Benchmarking Terminology for Firewall
Performance" [1], defines many of the terms that are used in this
document. The terminology document SHOULD be consulted before
attempting to make use of this document.
2. Requirements
In this document, the words that are used to define the significance
of each particular requirement are capitalized. These words are:
* "MUST" This word, or the words "REQUIRED" and "SHALL" mean that
the item is an absolute requirement of the specification.
* "SHOULD" This word or the adjective "RECOMMENDED" means that there
may exist valid reasons in particular circumstances to ignore this
item, but the full implications should be understood and the case
carefully weighed before choosing a different course.
Hickman, et al. Informational