JPH1127268A - Communication performance evaluation system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To evaluate communication performance of a communication system easily and with high accuracy by transmitting and receiving a test packet generated under defined test structure and a protocol. SOLUTION: Structure regarding the communication system in test, i.e., network structure like the number of nodes, the number of communication routes, property of the communication routes, etc., and the structure of the test sequence and the test packet are defined in a test structure definition sub- system 20. The test protocol when the test packet is transmitted and received is defined in a test protocol definition sub-system 30 and data transmission is performed by transmitting and receiving the test packet between packet generation sub-systems 1a to 4a of respective nodes 1 to 4 based on the contents of the definition. Then a performance evaluation test is executed and 4 to 4 communication performance is evaluated based on measurement results 1b to 4b by a performance evaluation sub-system 50. In this case, since the test is executed by actually performing the data transmission between the respective modes 1 to 4, the communication performance is evaluated with high accuracy unlike the case that simulation is performed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a communication performance evaluation system used when a communication system is constructed by a plurality of communication devices.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, ATM (Asynchronous Trans
fer Mode), Ethernet, FDDI (Fiber Distribu
When a communication system is to be constructed using ted data interface, ARCNET, etc., the communication performance when data communication is performed between n communication devices constituting the communication system, that is, n The communication performance with respect to n is evaluated in advance.

In this case, conventionally, a simulation program is created on the basis of one-to-one communication performance, that is, communication performance when data communication is performed by only two communication devices, and n-to-n communication is performed using this program. The performance was predicted.

There is also a method in which a test is performed on an actual communication system and the n-to-n communication performance is measured and evaluated in advance. However, such a method is rarely implemented because a test environment is not easily constructed.

[0005]

When predicting the n-to-n communication performance based on the one-to-one communication performance, data loss to one node specific to n-to-n communication due to concentration of data in one node and simultaneous communication from a plurality of nodes are performed. In order to perform a simulation in consideration of retransmission by transmission or the like, necessary parameters may be insufficient. In this case, the simulation is performed by appropriately assuming the parameters. However, there is a problem that a completely different result may occur depending on the assumed parameters.

In order to perform a simulation, a program must be created in advance. However, the program becomes complicated depending on the scale of the target communication system and the required accuracy of the simulation. There is a problem that it takes time.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a communication performance evaluation system capable of easily and accurately evaluating the communication performance of a communication system. I do.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a communication performance evaluation system for evaluating the communication performance of a communication system in which a plurality of communication devices are interconnected by a network. Configuration defining means for defining a configuration related to a communication system at the time of testing, test protocol defining means defining a test protocol at the time of testing, and test packet generating means for generating a test packet to be transmitted and received by the communication system at the time of testing And communication performance based on predetermined parameters obtained when a test packet generated by the packet generating means is transmitted and received by the communication system under the configuration and test protocol defined by the test configuration defining means and the test protocol defining means. And a performance evaluation means for evaluating

[0009]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a communication performance evaluation system according to an embodiment of the present invention. This communication performance evaluation system includes nodes 1 to 4, a test configuration definition subsystem 20, a test protocol definition subsystem 30, a database 40, and a performance evaluation subsystem 50.

The nodes 1 to 4 are communication devices constituting a communication system, and include test packet generation subsystems 1a to 1a.
4a, and measurement results 1b to 4 of a performance evaluation test described later.
b can be stored. The test packet generation subsystems 1a to 4a may be realized as software processing.

The nodes 1 to 4 are connected by a network as shown in FIG. 2, and a four-to-four communication system is constructed. In this communication system, the nodes 1 to 4 are directly connected to the other nodes 1 to 4, respectively, and 6 (= ₄ C ₂ ) times as many communication paths as the one-to-one communication, that is, six communication paths 11 to 16 are provided. Existing.

Here, it is considered that the communication performance evaluation system is used to evaluate the 4-to-4 communication performance of the communication system shown in FIG. In this case, first, using the test configuration definition subsystem 20, the configuration related to the communication system at the time of the test, specifically, the network configuration such as the number of nodes, the number of communication paths, the properties of the communication paths, and the performance evaluation test are performed. Define the test sequence to be executed and the structure of the test packet. These data are stored in the database 40.

Here, the test sequence shows the configuration of a performance evaluation test to be executed. For example, processing such as (1) download, (2) upload, (3) logging, (4) handshake, etc. Processes such as retransmission and timeout corresponding to these are defined. At this time, the test sequence is defined by a method using a state transition diagram.

The test packet is a basic unit of data in the performance evaluation test.
Transmits and receives data in units of the test packet, and a performance evaluation subsystem 50, which will be described later, performs performance evaluation based on the transfer time of the test packet, the total number of transferred packets, and the like.

On the other hand, the test protocol definition subsystem 3
Using 0, a test protocol for transmitting and receiving a test packet in each of the nodes 1 to 4 is defined. At this time, a test protocol is defined for each of the communication paths 11 to 16 connecting each of the nodes 1 to 4, and even if a plurality of test protocols are assigned to one of the communication paths 11 to 16 by a layer structure, for example, the communication path 11 The test protocol may be different for one of the data transmission and data reception. The defined test protocol is stored in the database 40.

Next, based on the data thus stored in the database 40, data communication is actually performed on the communication system to execute a performance evaluation test. In this case, the test packet generation subsystem 1 of each of the nodes 1 to 4
a to 4a refer to the data of the database 40, generate a test packet under the obtained test sequence and test protocol, and transmit the test packet to a predetermined node 1.
To 4.

On the other hand, each of the nodes 1 to 4 receives a test packet transmitted from another node 1 to 4 and, for example, a time required for transferring the test packet (transfer rate).
And the total number of received test packets, etc.
Record as 4b.

When the performance evaluation test is completed, the performance evaluation subsystem 50 determines the communication performance of the entire communication system based on the measurement results 1b to 4b recorded in each of the nodes 1 to 4, and determines the performance as 4 to 4 communication performance. Output.

As described above, in the communication performance evaluation system of the present embodiment, the test configuration definition subsystem 20
The configuration related to the communication system at the time of the test, that is, the network configuration such as the number of nodes, the number of communication paths, and the nature of the communication path, the test sequence and the structure of the test packet are defined, and the test protocol definition subsystem 30 transmits and receives the test packet. When a test protocol is defined, the packet generation subsystems 1a to 4a of each of the nodes 1 to 4 transmit and receive test packets and perform data communication based on these definitions to perform a performance evaluation test. The performance evaluation subsystem 50 evaluates the 4-to-4 communication performance based on the measurement results 1b to 4b at this time.

In this case, since the performance evaluation test is executed by actually performing data communication between each of the nodes 1 to 4, data loss due to concentration of data on one node 1 to 4, A situation that occurs in an actual communication system, such as retransmission by simultaneous transmission of a plurality of nodes 1 to 4, is also reproduced. Therefore, unlike the conventional case where the simulation of the n-to-n communication performance is performed based on the one-to-one communication performance, the n-to-n communication performance can be evaluated with high accuracy.

In order to execute a performance evaluation test,
It is only necessary to define the minimum required data such as the configuration of the communication system and the test protocol at the time of the test, and there is no need to create a program using complicated parameters as in the related art, so that n: n can be easily performed. Communication performance can be evaluated.

[0022]

As described above, according to the present invention, a configuration and a test protocol relating to a communication system at the time of a test for evaluating communication performance are defined in advance, and a test packet is generated according to these definitions. The test packet is actually transmitted and received by the communication system, and the communication performance is evaluated based on the parameters obtained as a result.

In this case, since the data communication is actually performed on the communication system, the data may be lost due to the concentration of data on one of the communication devices, or the retransmission may be performed by simultaneous transmission of a plurality of communication devices. The situation that can occur in the communication system is also reproduced, so that the one-to-one
Unlike the case where the simulation is performed based on the communication performance, the communication performance can be evaluated with high accuracy.

Further, it is only necessary to define the minimum necessary information such as the configuration and the test protocol relating to the communication system at the time of the test, and it is not necessary to create a program using complicated parameters as in the prior art. An evaluation of the communication system can be performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a communication performance evaluation system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a communication system constituted by nodes in FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 1-4 Nodes 1a-4a Test packet generation subsystem 1b-4b Measurement results 20 Test configuration definition subsystem 30 Test protocol definition subsystem 40 Performance evaluation subsystem

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A communication performance evaluation system for evaluating the communication performance of a communication system in which a plurality of communication devices are interconnected by a network, comprising: a configuration related to the communication system during a test for evaluating the communication performance. Test configuration defining means for defining, test protocol defining means for defining a test protocol at the time of the test, test packet generating means for generating a test packet to be transmitted and received by the communication system at the time of the test, the test configuration defining means and the test Performance evaluation for evaluating the communication performance based on predetermined parameters obtained when the test packet generated by the packet generation means is transmitted and received by the communication system under the configuration and the test protocol defined by the protocol definition means And a communication performance evaluation system.