Some observations on the performance of a 56 Kbit internet link

ABSTRACT

A 56 Kb gateway between two Ethernets was installed and subjected to heavy traffic loads. While large file transfers were being done between the networks, less demanding internetwork commands were issued and the response time measured. The effect of the heavy network load on the smaller tasks is presented in this report. It appears that the smaller tasks are unfairly penalized for the network load caused by the larger tasks. If so, this could be a problem for the design and use of the backbone network of the NSFnet. No conclusions are drawn concerning the applicability of these results in a general case. The data is presented for consideration by those who are planning to rely on such links and have some knowledge of the level of traffic that can be expected in their own environment.

REFERENCES

• 1: [Amer86] Amer, Paul D., Ram N. Kumar, Ruey-bin Kao, Jeffrey T. Phillips, Lillian N. Cassel Local Area Broadcast Network Measurement Traffic Characterization University of Delaware Department of Computer and Information Sciences, Newark DE 19716 Technical Report No. 86-12 January 1986.
• 2: [Feldmeier84] Feldmeier, D. C. Empirical Analysis of a Token Ring Network Massachusetts Inst. Technol. Lab. Computer Sci, Cambridge MA Tech. Memo, MIT/LCS/TM-254, January 1984.

INDEX TERMS

Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
      C.2.1 Network Architecture and Design

          Nouns: Ethernet
  C.4 PERFORMANCE OF SYSTEMS
      Subjects: Performance attributes

General Terms:
Experimentation, Measurement, Performance