Network SLA

Fri Mar 13 14:34:57 UTC 2009

Anyone interested in setting up his own IP SLA probes by hand and then
collect the measurements into a database, can use a Perl tool we developed
at 2005:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/saa-collector

It's rather old (SAA got renamed into IPSLA in the meantime) and, in
retrospect, the code is a little rough around the edges, but it's
nevertheless usable.

Regards,
Athanasios

On Wed, Mar 11, 2009 at 10:20 PM, Andreas, Rich <
Rich_Andreas at cable.comcast.com> wrote:

> I have found that Cisco IPSLA is heavily used in the MSO/Service
> Provider Space.  Juniper has equivalent functionality via RPM.
>
> Rich
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Saqib Ilyas [mailto:msaqib at gmail.com]
> Sent: Saturday, March 07, 2009 6:12 AM
> To: nanog at nanog.org
> Subject: Re: Network SLA
>
> I must thank everyone who has answered my queries. Just a couple more
> short questions.
> For instance, if one is using MRTG, and wants to check if we can meet
> a 1 Mbps end-to-end throughput between a couple of customer sites, I
> believe you would need to use some traffic generator tools, because
> MRTG merely imports counters from routers and plots them. Is that
> correct?
> We've heard of the BRIX active measurement tool in replies to my
> earlier email. Also, I've found Cisco IP SLA that also sends traffic
> into the service provider network and measures performance. How many
> people really use IP SLA feature?
> Thanks and best regards
>
> On Mon, Feb 23, 2009 at 1:19 PM, Zartash Uzmi <zartash at gmail.com> wrote:
> > As I gather, there is a mix of answers, ranging from "building the
> resources
> > according to requirements and HOPE for the best" to "use of arguably
> > sophisticated tools and perhaps sharing the results with the legal
> > department".
> >
> > I would be particularly interested in hearing the service providers'
> > viewpoint on the following situation.
> >
> > Consider a service provider with MPLS deployed within its own network.
> >
> > (A) When the SP enters into a relation with the customer, does the SP
> > establish new MPLS paths based on customer demands (this is perhaps
> similar
> > to "building" based on requirements as pointed out by David)? If yes,
> > between what sites/POPs? I assume the answer may be different
> depending upon
> > a single-site customer or a customer with multiple sites.
> >
> > (B) For entering into the relationship for providing X units of
> bandwidth
> > (to another site of same customer or to the Tier-1 backbone), does the
> SP
> > use any wisdom (in addition to MRTG and the likes)? If so, what
> scientific
> > parameters are kept in mind?
> >
> > (C) How does the customer figure out that a promise for X units of
> bandwidth
> > is maintained by the SP? I believe customers may install some
> measuring
> > tools but is that really the case in practice?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Zartash
> >
> > On Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 1:16 AM, Stefan <netfortius at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Saqib Ilyas wrote:
> >>
> >>> Greetings
> >>> I am curious to know about any tools/techniques that a service
> provider
> >>> uses
> >>> to assess an SLA before signing it. That is to say, how does an
> >>> administrator know if he/she can meet what he is promising. Is it
> based on
> >>> experience? Are there commonly used tools for this?
> >>> Thanks and best regards
> >>>
> >>>
> >> Not necessarily as a direct answer (I am pretty sure there'll be
> others on
> >> this list giving details in the area of specific tools and
> standards), but I
> >> think this may be a question (especially considering your end result
> >> concern: *signing the SLA!) equally applicable to your legal
> department. In
> >> the environment we live, nowadays, the SLA could (should?!? ...
> >> unfortunately) be "refined" and (at the other end - i.e. receiving)
> >> "interpreted" by the lawyers, with possibly equal effects (mostly
> financial
> >> and as overall impact on the business) as the tools we (the technical
> >> people) would be using to measure latency, uptime, bandwidth, jitter,
> etc...
> >>
> >> Stefan
> >>
> >>
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Muhammad Saqib Ilyas
> PhD Student, Computer Science and Engineering
> Lahore University of Management Sciences
>
>
>
>