Open Shortest Path First (OSPF)
Conformance and
Performance Testing
Sample Test Plans
Contents
Overview ....................................................................................................................................3
1. OSPF Conformance Test .....................................................................................................3
2. OSPF Route Capacity Test ...................................................................................................6
3. OSPF Route Convergence Test ...........................................................................................8
4. OSPF Topology Scalability Test ........................................................................................ 10
5. OSPF Equal Cost Path Verification Test ........................................................................... 13
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2 Copyright © Ixia, 2004 OSPF Conformance and Performance Testing: Sample Test Plans
Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) Conformance and Performance Testing:
Sample Test Plan
Overview The test plans presented here include engineers testing OSPF devices and
conformance, functional, and performance networks, and provide a baseline for
tests designed for network and QA achieving network quality.
1. OSPF Objective. Verify the Device Under Test’s Linux workstation either connected directly
Conformance Test (DUT’s) compliance with the following to the DUT, or via Ixia test hardware (see
capabilities defined in various OSPF RFCs: Figure 1). IxANVL emulates various OSPF
• OSPFv2 – RFC 1583, RFC 2328 topologies, depending on the configuration
of each test case.
• OSPF Opaque LSA – RFC 2370
• OSPF NSSA – RFC 1587 Input Parameters. Two sets of parameters
are required prior to running conformance
• OSPF Database Overflow – RFC 1765
tests: one for test tool configuration and
• OSPFv3 (OSPF for IPv6) – RFC 2740 one for DUT configuration. The test tool
Setup. A minimum of two network configuration describes the interface and
connections are required from the test tool protocol configuration of the tester, while
to the DUT — one for request packets and the DUT configuration describes the OSPF
one for response packets..Ixia’s IxANVL features of the DUT using Expect scripts
conformance test solution is run from a (see Table 1).
Table 1.Conformance test input parameters.
Parameters Description
Test Tool Tester Test IP Addresses, DUT IP Address, OSPF protocol
Configuration parameters (Hello interval, router priority, authentication, etc.)
DUT Configuration OSPF features (TOS Routing, Database Exchange Timeout,
Routing Table Update Timeout, etc.), via Expect scripts.
Linux Linux
workstation DUT workstation DUT
OR
IXIA
Figure 1. OSPF conformance test setup.
OSPF Conformance and Performance Testing: Sample Test Plans Copyright © Ixia, 2004 3
Methodology. Conformance testing is an based on the direct interpretation of
important tool to verify how a DUT various OSPF RFCs.
complies with specific protocol standards. 1. Enter parameters to describe both
Conformance test tools perform their tests the Conformance Tester and DUT
as a dialog: they send packets to the router configuration.
being tested, receive the packets sent in
2. Select all or a set of test cases to run
response, and then analyze the response
(see Figure 2).
to determine the next action to take. This
methodology allows conformance test 3. Run the conformance tests from the
tools to test complicated scenarios much user interface, or in a batch mode via
more intelligently and flexibly than command scripts, reconfiguring the
achievable by simple packet generation DUT as required between test cases
and capture devices. Conformance testing to match the test setup.
also includes negative test cases to help Results. Number of tests passed/failed,
validate device response to “killer including reasons for failed cases (Figure
packets”. 3). IxANVL also keeps the history of each
For OSPF conformance testing, a number pass or fail test case in the Test Journal
of test cases are run against the DUT (Figure 4).
Figure 2. OSPF test case selection.
4 Copyright © Ixia, 2004 OSPF Conformance and Performance Testing: Sample Test Plans
Figure 3. OSPF Conformance test results.
Figure 4. OSPF test case journal.
OSPF Conformance and Performance Testing: Sample Test Plans Copyright © Ixia, 2004 5
2. OSPF Route Objective. Determines the number of routes advertise the OSPF network topology and
Capacity Test that an OSPF DUT can sustain at a single routes, while test port 1 sends traffic to
time. This scalability test is designed to verify the advertised topology (Figure 5).
help network and test engineers to: During the test, tester port 2 gradually
• Evaluate devices to be purchased or increases the number of advertised routes
used in the network. until the maximum sustainable route
capacity can be determined. Ixia’s
• Test capacity and understand network
IxScriptMate application can be used to
limitations before actual deployment
configure, control, and execute this test.
of new network elements and services.
IxScriptMate also provides comprehensive
Setup. The test requires two tester ports – test results showing frame loss percentage
one to transmit traffic and one to receive. based on the ability to forward under
The transmit direction of traffic is maximum route capacity.
unidirectional. Test port 2 is used to
Figure 5. OSPF Route Capacity Test topology.
Input Parameters
Table 2. OSPF Route Capacity Test input parameters
Parameter Description
Max Rate Rate at which frames will be sent to advertised
routes
Tolerance Percentage of traffic loss tolerance
Route Step Number of routes to increase per iteration
Number of The number of prefixes to generate at the
Routes beginning of the test.
Advertise Delay The maximum time in seconds the router is
Per Route allowed to absorb the advertised route. This
number is multiplied by the number of routes to
calculate the “Max Wait Time”.
6 Copyright © Ixia, 2004 OSPF Conformance and Performance Testing: Sample Test Plans
Methodology Results. When the test completes and the
1. Test port 2 advertises the initial tolerance has been exceeded, the test
number of routes defined by the results will show the maximum number of
parameter “Number of Routes”. routes learned by the DUT. Figure 6 shows
an example results page created in
2. After passing the “Max Wait Time”
IxScriptMate. The results are broken down
(determined by “Advertised Delay Per
per frame size and show the resulting
Route”), test port 1 sends traffic
numbers for “max routes verified”, “total
targeting each advertised route
loss percentage”, and “tolerance”. The
behind port 2. The traffic throughput
“Max Routes Verified” value shows the
rate is set by the parameter “Max
maximum number of routes that could be
Rate”.
sustained at that particular traffic rate and
3. Test port 2 verifies packets received frame size. This test can be executed
within the defined loss “Tolerance”. manually as well but automation with
4. Test port 2 advertises more routes IxScriptMate helps to simplify and speed
increased by the amount defined by the testing process.
“Route Step”.
5. Repeat step 2 through step 4 until
port 2 receives no packets or packet
loss is above the “Tolerance” level.
Figure 6. OSPF route capacity test results.
OSPF Conformance and Performance Testing: Sample Test Plans Copyright © Ixia, 2004 7
3. OSPF Route Objective. Verifies the ability of a router to 7). Both receive ports emulate OSPF
Convergence Test switch between preferred and less- networks. The transmit direction of traffic
preferred routes when the preferred routes is unidirectional. The DUT must have three
are withdrawn and re-advertised. The test ports utilized with two enabled for OSPF. All
calculates convergence by taking an three ports should be configured for IP and
average convergence latency of multiple have unique subnets in which to
topological changes. communicate with the tester ports. Ixia’s
IxScriptMate application can be used to
Setup. This test uses three test ports – one
configure, control, and execute this test.
to transmit and two to receive (see Figure
Figure 7. OSPF convergence test topology.
Input Parameters
Table 3. OSPF convergence test input parameters
Parameter Description
Max Rate The rate at which frames are transmitted. This is
the percentage of the maximum theoretical frame
rate.
Number of The number of prefixes to generate at the start of
Routes the test.
Advertised Delay The maximum time, in seconds, to allow the router
Per Route to absorb each route. This time is multiplied by the
number of routes to calculate the “Max Wait Time”
— the amount of time the test will wait for the
entire topology to stabilize.
8 Copyright © Ixia, 2004 OSPF Conformance and Performance Testing: Sample Test Plans
Methodology. This methodology can be 4. Measure the timestamp T1 of the
executed manually or by script. The key to last packet targeting a specific route
determining an accurate convergence time delivered on the preferred path.
is understanding the DUT capabilities and Measure the timestamp T2 of the
properly manipulating the test parameters. first packet targeting the same route
1. Test ports 1 and 2 advertise the arriving via the alternate path.
same OSPF topology and routes with 5. Calculate the convergence time for
different metrics. The path via port 1 one specific route = T2 – T1.
will be used as the preferred route, 6. Repeat step 4 and 5 to obtain
while the path via port 2 will be used convergence time for all withdrawn
as the alternate route. routes. Calculate average
2. After the “Max Wait Time”, the Tx convergence for all routes.
port sends traffic to target all
Results. When The test results provide an
advertised routes. The DUT should
average convergence time for all routes.
route the traffic via the preferred
Figure 8 displays example results for the
routes to test port 1.
automated OSPF convergence test in
3. Routes are withdrawn from test port IxScriptMate. In addition to convergence
1 (the preferred path). Traffic should time, this test also indicates the amount of
reroute to arrive at test port 2 (the lost packets caused by the convergence.
alternate path).
Figure 8. OSPF convergence test results.
OSPF Conformance and Performance Testing: Sample Test Plans Copyright © Ixia, 2004 9
4. OSPF Topology Objective. This test builds an OSPF topology topology, as shown in Figure 9. The OSPF
Scalability Test and tests the DUT’s capability to learn tester port must be able to generate OSPF
intra-area LSAs. A given number of LSAs LSAs to construct topological databases.
are generated and traffic sent to all routes Tester ports can be added on the Rx side
advertised to verify. to increase the OSPF database to scale.
Ixia’s IxExplorer OSPF Routing Protocol
Setup. The test requires at least two test
Emulation can be used to run this test.
ports – one to transmit and one to emulate
and advertise the OSPF intra-area
Figure 9. OSPF topology scalability test.
Input Parameters
Table 4. OSPF topology scalability test input parameters
Parameter Description
Traffic rate Rate at which traffic is sent to the destination
routes.
Number of ports The number of Tx (traffic) and Rx (OSPF) ports.
Number of The number of routes is dependent on the number
routes of emulated routers.
Number of The number of emulated routers dictates the
routers number of routes, depending on whether the
configuration is broadcast or point-to-point.
10 Copyright © Ixia, 2004 OSPF Conformance and Performance Testing: Sample Test Plans
Methodology all destinations within the topology.
1. Configure at least two test ports – Transmit traffic from the Tx test port
one to transmit and one to receive to accomplish the verification.
for OSPF. Packets are counted on the Rx ports
and analyzed for missing frames.
2. The OSPF port(s) advertise Type 1
router LSAs. The LSAs mesh together 5. If route verification is successful, the
to create a logical topology similar to test can be scaled by adding physical
Figure 9. The OSPF grid building ports, additional emulated routers
feature of Ixia’s IxExplorer OSPF per port, or more LSAs to each
Routing Protocol Emulation is shown router. Traffic rates can be increased
in Figure 10. for forwarding performance
measurements.
3. Verify all OSPF neighbors per port are
in full state on the DUT. 6. Continue to add ports and LSAs until
the DUT can no longer forward to all
4. Confirm the DUT has learned all LSAs
destinations successfully.
and can effectively forward traffic to
Figure 10. OSPF grid configuration example.
OSPF Conformance and Performance Testing: Sample Test Plans Copyright © Ixia, 2004 11
Results. A receive statistic for each packet test can serve as the basis for building
sent to every route advertised by OSPF. larger tests with similar parameters. Rates
This tells the tester that the device was can be monitored with color-coding and
able to populate the forwarding table and specifics like latency, data integrity, and
is capable of sending traffic to that route sequence checking are available as well.
while sustaining the desired topology. This
Figure 11. OSPF graph form results.
12 Copyright © Ixia, 2004 OSPF Conformance and Performance Testing: Sample Test Plans
5. OSPF Equal Cost Objective. This test confirms OSPF load same cost paths to the same destination
Path Verification balancing features, given four equal cost prefix as shown in Figure 12. Two OSPF Rx
Test paths to the same destination. ports each advertise two OSPF neighbors,
each with the same route advertisement.
Setup. This test requires a minimum of
Ixia’s IxExplorer OSPF Routing Protocol
three ports — one to transmit and two to
Emulation can be used to run this test.
receive and represent four routers with
Figure 12. OSPF equal cost path verification test topology.
Input Parameters
Table 5. OSPF equal cost path verification test parameters.
Parameter Description
Traffic rate Rate at which traffic is sent to the destination
network.
Number of ports The number of Tx (traffic) and Rx (OSPF) ports
Number of The number of routes can be increased and load
routes balancing take place over several destinations.
Number of The number of emulated routers per physical port
routers per port can be varied.
Methodology full state with each OSPF router and
1. Establish the number of test ports verify equal cost paths exist and are
needed to advertise the number of all in the forwarding table.
OSPF adjacencies required. 4. Run continuous traffic to destination
2. Advertise LSAs from each peer for IP addresses in the advertised
the same route. Each emulated networks.
router advertises one route path with 5. Increase the number of ports or
the same metric. adjacencies per port with the same
3. Confirm that the DUT has reached route.
OSPF Conformance and Performance Testing: Sample Test Plans Copyright © Ixia, 2004 13
Results. This test results in a rate metric for application.Notice the semi-even traffic
each destination port. Figure 13 shows distribution across the four equal cost
example test results using Ixia’s IxExplorer paths.
Figure 13. Statistical results.
14 Copyright © Ixia, 2004 OSPF Conformance and Performance Testing: Sample Test Plans
