The Factor That Cause Network Performance

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Virtual machines are used to create a private virtual network in order to conduct the experiment. The software VMware (version 9) (VMware, 2012) has been used for this purpose. Two virtual machines are required: one machine to run as client, one machine to run as receiver. All two machines are running the Windows 7 Professional and Windows 8. The two machines are connected to a virtual switch which is created from VMware. The specifications for the two machines are presented in Table 5.2.1.

Figure 5.2.2 presents a high level diagram of the virtual network.

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this research is to compare and contrast the various migration techniques. The 6to4 tunneling was the migration technique selected to operate on the five operating systems (three Cisco 7200 IOS images, Windows 7 Professional, Windows 8, then installed on the VMware 9 and connected to the GNS3 simulation. This performance measurement research examined on two types of transmission protocols namely Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP). The result of this research focused on four metrics such as throughput, delay, jitter, and CPU utilization. The experiments conducted using different payload sizes, ranging from 64 bytes to 1536 bytes.

METHODOLOGY

The literature concluded that an effective methodology in migrating from IPv4 to IPv6 must consist of the following two main requirements.

Client performance comparison between IPv4 and IPv6 migration mechanisms

The factor that cause network performance (Routers) in IPv4 and IPv6

Various operating and hardware systems perform differently in IPv4 and IPv6 migration mechanisms

Method Used for Study

Quantitative method was adopted for this study of network performance measurement. This method mainly concentrates on measurement and statistical data for the objectives that the research focused on. Thomas (2003 Thomas R. M. (2003). Blending qualitative and quantitative research methods in theses and dissertations. California: Corwin Press. ) states that "Quantitative methods focus attention on measurements and amounts (more and less, larger and smaller, often and seldom, similar and different) of the characteristics displayed by the people and events that the researchers studies". Data gathered in this research is quantitative data, which collected from the experiment conducted in the networking laboratory environment. The findings of this research are the outcomes of the evaluation of data collected from the experiment.

According to Thomas (2003), there are four types of quantitative studies, which include telephone survey, experiment, co-relational study, and quantitative content analysis. This research will only focus on experimental quantitative research; due to the primary data is totally dependence on the experimental results. The outcome of this research is to find out the performance of 6to4 transition mechanisms for the five operating systems (three Cisco 7200 IOS images, Windows 7 Professional, Windows 8. Next section will be introducing the data collection method.

3.3 Data Collection

Data collection is the process of relevant gathering information by using different type of techniques. According to Creswell (1994 Creswell, J. W. (1994). Research design: Qualitative and quantitative approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. ), "data collection steps involve setting the boundaries for the study; collecting information through observations, interviews, documents, and visual materials; and establishing the protocol for recording information". Firstly, the boundaries of this research is to study the performance of 6to4 transition mechanisms on five operating systems that help understanding and adopting a suitable IPv4/IPv6 transition mechanisms for implementation during the migration period from IPv4 to IPv6. Secondly, the method of collecting information in this research based upon literature review and experimental results. The first stage of data collection process is to search for relevant literature to support the justification of this research and to provide a clear understanding of the previous studies that conducted by different researchers. Searching for literature is mainly based on books, journals, conference proceedings, reports, Request for Comment (RFC) and other credible sources from the Internet.

Finally, the results gathered from experiment will enter into Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Line graphs can be drawn according to the Excel spreadsheet and those graphs can be used as the sources of data analysis, which will produce the outcome of the result. The description of literature gathering process of this research will discuss in the next section.

3.4 Literature Review Process

Literature gathering is the initial stage of this research. It provides the knowledge base and information needed for the study. Related studies provide an idea of how previous researchers conducted their studies and help identifying the direction of future research studies. All literature was gathered from variety of credible and relevant sources such as books, journals, conference proceedings, and online resources. The following are credible sources of literature gathering: Books: Napier Library Online Database: IEEE, ACM, Library search engine Web search engine: Google, ietf.org

All sources mentioned above are credible and relevant for research study. After literature has been gathered and analysed, the experimental setup and data gathering process will take place in the experimental laboratory. Next section is the discussion of the experimental data gathering process.

3.5 Experimental Data Gathering Process

The primary data source of this research is the experimental result. Wireshark is the selected tool to monitor the performance measurement study. Figure 3-1 below shows the sample of an IPv6 packet be encapsulate into IPv4 packet, and then decapsulate with an IPv6 packet at the endpoint. This shows the Internet Protocol 41 for both sender and receiver.

Wireshark diagram for Internet Protocol 41

Sample result from the wireshake

The above figure shows the total result of 10 runs per each packet size. Relevant data used in this research are client (sender) performance, network, internal behaviour (CPU, processing). average delay, average jitter, and average bit rate that circled in red. The results obtained from the test will be converting into Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and produce line charts for the comparison and data analysis stage. Figure 3-2 below shows the sample line chart produced by using Microsoft Excel spreadsheet:

3.6 Chapter Summary

This chapter covers the research aims, method of study, and data gathering process of this research. These aims will help us identify the scope of the research. The method of this study is an experimental quantitative approach. Experiment is the primary data source and the result of the experiment will presents in Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Line charts will produces from Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, which benefits data analysis. Next chapter introduces the design of the experiment.

CHAPTER 4

This chapter describes the details and procedures of the experiment, which involve the design of network infrastructure and performance measurement. The aim of this experimental research is to focus on the evaluation of different IPv4 and IPv6 transition mechanisms running over various operating systems that include Windows 7 professional and Windows 8

4.1 Hardware Specifications

To produce a consistent and accurate network performance measurement of 6to4 transition mechanisms over four operating systems, two computers with no identical hardware were used in the experiment. Table 4-1 below shows hardware specification for all four computers.

Hardware

Specification

Hardware

Specification

AMD Phenom(tc) II P60 Quad-Core processor 1,79 GHz

AMD Phenom(tc) II P60 Quad-Core processor 1.80 GHz

CPU

AMD Phenom(tc) II P60 Quad-Core processor 1.79 GHz

Memory

1 GB

Memory

1 GB

Onboard Network Interface Card

Onboard Network Interface Card

PC1 Network

PC1 Network

Inter 100 Fast Ethernet

System type

64-bit

System type

64-bit

Due to limitation of hardware resources, each computer was not able to have either two Gigabit NIC card or two Fast Ethernet NIC card. To minimize network bandwidth to 100Mbps, a five ports Fast Ethernet switch used for interconnection between sender computer and the router. Crossover Ethernet cables used for the connection between router and router, and router and receiver.

4.2 Software Specification

Two operating systems selected for the experimental research study in which two are

Microsoft operating systems and the other two are Linux open source operating systems:

Windows 7 Professional

Windows 8

4.3 Network Design

The experiment involved five hardward, which create a network infrastructure that contains two client nodes and three router nodes. This infrastructure is a simulation of two IPv6 LANs interconnected via IPv4 network infrastructure as a simulation of the Internet. Network diagram of the experimental design presents in figure 4-1 below:

Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4), Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) and IPv4/IPv6 transition mechanisms. Both client 1 and client 2 were loaded with Microsoft Windows 7 Professional and Microsoft Windows 7 for every test-bed. Client 1 configured as the packet sender and Client 2 configured as the packet receiver. To minimise the bandwidth to 100Mbps, a fast Ethernet cable used for interconnection between Client 1 (sender) and Router1 internal NIC card. Serial cables used to connect Router1, Router2 and Router3, between Router 3 and Client 2. Section below shows the configuration of each test-bed.

4.4 Network Setup and Configuration

The 6to4 tunnel was the only experimental test-bed conducted in this research.

Future work

This research presented the study of performance differences in throughput, jitter, delay, and CPU utilisation of 6to4 on two Windows operating systems 7and 8. based on UDP and TCP transmission protocol. The result of this study is a reference guide for network engineers to have a brief idea of the performance of 6to4 tunneling mechanisms on all three operating systems.

This study can be extended by: Select different IPv4/IPv6 transition mechanisms such as ISATAP, Terado, NAT-PT, and DSTM. Changing to hardware router or comparing between software and hardware routers. Add multiple measurement tools to the experiment. Measure different network traffic types (VoIP, DNS). Conduct the experiment by using different network design such as host-to-host, host-to-router, and router-to-host.