A Measurement Center for the NBS Local Area Computer Network

Author

Amer, Paul D.

Author_Institution

Institute for Computer Sciences and Technology, National Bureau of Standards, Washington, DC 20234 and the Department of Computer and Information Sciences, University of Delaware

Issue

8

fYear

1982

Firstpage

723

Lastpage

729

Abstract

This paper describes a measurement center for the NBSNET, a distributed, broadcast local area computer network (LAN) at the National Bureau of Standards. A LAN measurement center allows careful testing and evaluation of a network under normal and varying user-defined conditions. The measurement center consists of three components: an artificial traffic generator, a monitoring system, and data analysis software. The traffic generator emulates varied loads on the network, allowing for controlled experimentation and functional testing. The monitoring system captures measurement information about both artificial and normal network traffic. Analysis software summarizes this information into ten measurement reports following each monitoring period. Implementation issues and problems are discussed.

Keywords

Broadcast network; CSMA/CD; local network; measurement; multiple access channel; performance evaluation; Area measurement; Broadcasting; Communication system traffic control; Computer networks; Computerized monitoring; Data analysis; Local area networks; NIST; Software measurement; Testing; Broadcast network; CSMA/CD; local network; measurement; multiple access channel; performance evaluation;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Computers, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9340

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TC.1982.1676078

Filename

1676078