IP SLA—Service Performance Testing

This module describes how to configure the ITU-T Y.1564 Ethernet service performance test methodology that measures the ability of a network device to enable movement of traffic at the configured data rate.

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Information About Service Performance Operations

Y.1564 is an Ethernet service activation test methodology and is the standard for turning up, installing, and troubleshooting Ethernet and IP based services. Y.1564 is the only standard test methodology that allows a complete validation of Ethernet service-level agreements (SLAs) in a single test.

Service performance testing is designed to measure the ability of a Device Under Test (DUT) or a network under test to properly forward traffic in different states.

Cisco implementation of ITU-T Y.1564 has three key objectives:

  • To serve as a network SLA validation tool, ensuring that a service meets its guaranteed performance settings in a controlled test time.

  • To ensure that all services carried by the network meet their SLA objectives at their maximum committed rate, thus proving that under maximum load, network devices and paths can support all traffic as designed.

  • To perform medium-term and long-term service testing, confirming that network elements can properly carry all services while under stress during a soaking period.

The following Key Performance Indicators (KPI) metrics are collected to ensure that the configured SLAs are met for the service or stream. These are service acceptance criteria metrics.

  • Information Rate (IR) or throughput—Measures the maximum rate at which none of the offered frames are dropped by the device under test (DUT). This measurement translates into the available bandwidth of the Ethernet virtual connection (EVC).

  • Frame Loss Ratio (FLR)—Measures the number of packets lost from the total number of packets sent. Frame loss can be due to a number of issues such as network congestion or errors during transmissions.

Because they interconnect segments, forwarding devices (switches and routers) and network interface units are the basis of any network. If a service is not correctly configured on any one of these devices within the end-to-end path, network performance can be greatly affected, leading to potential service outages and network-wide issues such as congestion and link failures. Service performance testing is designed to measure the ability of DUT or network under test, to correctly forward traffic in different states. The Cisco implementation of ITU-T Y.1564 includes the following service performance tests:

  • Minimum data rate to CIR—Bandwidth is generated from the minimum data rate to the committed information rate (CIR) for the test stream. KPI for Y.1564 are then measured to ensure that the configured service acceptance criteria (SAC) are met.

  • CIR to EIR—Bandwidth is ramped up from the CIR to the excess information rate (EIR) for the test stream. Because EIR is not guaranteed, only the transfer rate is measured to ensure that CIR is the minimum bandwidth up to the maximum EIR. Other KPI is not measured.


    Note
    When SADT is configured, rate higher than CIR + EIR, then above EIR is not measured and hence stats for Above EIR remains 0 in show ip sla statistics.

Service performance supports four operational modes: two-way statistics collection, one-way statistics collection, passive measurement mode, and traffic generator mode. Statistics are calculated, collected, and reported to the IP SLAs module. The statistics database stores historical statistics pertaining to the operations that have been executed.

  • One-way statistics collection—Both the passive measurement mode and the traffic generator mode are used in conjunction with each other. One device sends traffic as the generator and another device receives traffic in the passive mode and records the statistics. The passive mode is distinct from the two-way mode, where the remote device records statistics instead of looping back the traffic and the sending device records only the transmit statistics.

  • Two-way statistics collection—All the measurements are collected by the sender. The remote target must be in the loopback mode for the two-way statistics to work. Loopback mode enables the traffic from the sender to reach the target and be returned to the sender.

  • Passive measurement mode—This mode is enabled by excluding a configured traffic profile. A passive measurement operation does not generate live traffic. The operation collects only statistics for the target configured for the operation.

  • Traffic generator mode—This mode records transmit statistics for the number of packets and bytes sent.

Information About Configure Y.1564 to Generate and Measure Ethernet Traffic

Y.1564 is an ethernet service activation or performance test methodology for turning up, installing, and troubleshooting ethernet and IP based services. This test methodology allows for complete validation of ethernet service-level agreements (SLAs) in a single test. Using the traffic generator performance profile, you can create the traffic based on your requirements. Network performance indicators like throughput, loss, and availability are analyzed using layer 2 traffic with various bandwidth profiles. Availability is inversely proportional to frame loss ratio.

The figure below shows the Traffic Generator topology describing the traffic flow in the external and internal modes. The traffic is generated at the wire-side of Network-to-Network Interface (NNI) and is transmitted to the responder through the same interface for the external mode. The traffic is generated at the User-to-Network Interface (UNI) and transmitted to the responder through NNI respectively for the internal mode. The external mode is used to measure the throughput and loss at the NNI port whereas internal mode is used to measure the throughput and loss at the UNI port. During traffic generation, traffic at other ports is not affected by the generated traffic and can continue to switch network traffic.

Figure 1. Traffic Generator Topology


Prerequisites for IP SLA - Service Performance Testing

Ensure that the direction configured for the measurement-type direction {internal | external} and the profile traffic direction {internal | external} commands is the same.

Scale and Limitations for Configuring IP SLA - Service Performance Operation

The following table lists the Y.1564 two-way throughput measurement.

Table 1. Y.1564 Throughput Measurement for Each Packet Size

Packet Size (Bytes)

Max Rate (kbps)

64

650000

128

820000

256

860000

512

860000

1024

880000

1280

900000

1518

970000

9216

980000


Note

Higher order 1-GigabitEthernet ports and 10-GigabitEthernet port could have few packet loss in 9216 packet size. The above measurements are taken with external mode. Measured throughput value could be higher than configured rate upto 2%.

Traffic Generator

  • Supports eight simultaneous transmit sessions on device with a maximum rate of 1 Gbps .

  • Supports color-blind traffic generation.

  • SAT traffic is always generated in a burst.

    Default q-limit values are not adequate to handle the burst and thus leading to packet drops. You need to use the platform qos-qlimit-disable command to disable q-limit on the router and this would enable dynamic sharing of resources on all ports.

    The platform qos-qlimit-disable command disables the QoS q-limit functionality and enables the functionality again once the platform qos-qlimit-disable command is removed.

Measurement

The default ether-type to configure SAT endpoint is 0x8904. The measurement can only match packets with ether-type of 0x8904.

NCS 520 traffic generation happens with ether-type of 0x8904 by default. The measurement works if the traffic generator is also NCS 520 or its two-way statistics. The measurement cannot be used if there are devices other than NCS 520 on the other side as the traffic generator. Ether-types IPv4 and IPv6 are user configurable option (ether-type) supported. With the configuration set, you can perform measurement of packets from other devices with ether-type as IPv4 or IPv6.

SAT on NCS520 is supported only for Ethernet mode.

Loopback

NCS 520 does not support ethernet loopback or latching loopback.

NCS 520 supports loopback on SAT, and IP SLA configuration itself is used.

Use the loopback direction for the session along with packet profile. Source MAC address and destination MAC address are not same for loopback session. If an IP SLA session is configured as loopback mode, then the session should not have measurement or traffic profile parameters, otherwise the configuration fails.

Loopback sessions does not support statistics.

Restrictions for IP SLA - Service Performance Operation

  • Layer 3 fields such as IP, DSCP, and Layer 4 ports are not supported as packet parameter.

  • Measurement is supported only for throughput and loss. Delay and jitter measurement are not supported.

  • Service types are supported only for EFPs and not for bridge-domain and Layer 3 interfaces.

  • Maximum number of sessions supported is 8 and these 8 sessions can run simultaneously.

  • Color aware statistics is not supported.

  • Port-channel testing is not supported.

  • When a configuration performed on EFP or interface is shutdown, the packets do not egress out of any interface on the device, and after unshut, the traffic does not resume to egress direction. You need to restart the configuration manually.

  • On test EFP or BD removal on the test interface, traffic does not egress out of any of the interfaces in the device, and traffic flow resumes only after reconfiguring. After which, the test is rescheduled.

  • Each session should have an unique encapsulation, and if sessions have same encapsulations or match keys might impact the statistics.

  • Packets that use SAT internal MAC (0xf244493930ec) as destination MAC addresss and internal VLAN (0xdd4) have problem with forwarding.

  • Loopback or measurement with packet size of 1518 at ingress direction does not work. This is due to the extra headers being added at ingress direction. To overcome this, MTU size of the interface has to be increased.

  • Span on the SAT configured interface is not supported.

    Rx statistics work only after 10 seconds and you need to use the platform qos-qlimit-disable command to disable the q-limit on the router before starting the SLA session.

  • SLA measurement in 10-Gigabit Ethernet port is supported with maximum rate of 1-Gigabit Ethernet. Higher the order of 1-Gigabit Ethernet ports, 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports have few packets loss for higher packet size.

  • Interface statistics and SLA statistics might not match in higher order ports.

  • The following table shows the supported egress and ingress QOS on the sender side core interface for Ethernet and IP target SLA.

    Table 2. IP SLA and Type of QOS supported

    Type

    Policy-map at interface (Ingress)

    Policy-map at interface (Egress)

    Policy-map at EFP (Ingress)

    Policy-map at EFP (Egress)

    Internal Mode 2-way measurement

    Yes

    Yes

    Yes

    Yes

    Internal Receive Mode

    No

    Yes

    No

    Yes

    Internal Loopback Target Interface

    Yes

    Yes

    Yes

    Yes

    External Mode 2-way measurement

    No

    No

    No

    No

    External Receive Mode

    Yes

    No

    Yes

    No

    External Loopback Target Interface

    Yes

    No

    Yes

    No


    Note
    Ingress classification does not work for match on VLAN for SADT traffic.

  • The following table shows how Ethernet Target SLA with multicast or broadcast source MAC address is supported on different operational modes.

    Table 3. Multicast or Broadcast MAC support criteria for SLA

    Source or destination MAC address

    Operational mode

    Support for Ethernet Target SLA

    Multicast or broadcast source MAC address

    Traffic generator mode

    Not supported

    Passive measurement mode

    Two-way statistics collection mode

    Multicast or broadcast destination MAC address

    Traffic generator mode

    SLA generates the traffic

    Passive measurement mode

    SLA receives the traffic

    Two-way statistics collection mode

    Not supported

Generating Traffic Using Y.1564

Follow these steps to generate traffic using Y.1564:

SUMMARY STEPS

  1. Configure Ethernet Virtual Circuits (EVC).
  2. Configure Traffic Generator on the transmitter.
  3. Configure loopback on SAT IP SLA configuration itself if the remote end is NCS 520.
  4. Configure loopback on SAT IP SLA configuration itself, if remote end is NCS 520 or use ether-type as IPv4 or IPv6, if remote node is other than NCS520.
  5. Start the IP SLA session:

DETAILED STEPS

  Command or Action Purpose
Step 1

Configure Ethernet Virtual Circuits (EVC).

EVC is configured on the interface path such that the layer 2 path between the transmitter and the receiver is complete. For more information, see the "Configuring Ethernet Virtual Connections (EVCs)" section in the Carrier Ethernet Configuration Guide, Cisco IOS XE Release .
Step 2

Configure Traffic Generator on the transmitter.

Example:

The following is a sample configuration of the traffic generator. 

Direction - External
ip sla 200
service-performance type ethernet dest-mac-addr 0000.0300.0301 interface GigabitEthernet 0/0/1 service instance 300
frequency iteration 1 delay 1
duration time 50
profile packet
inner-cos 5
outer-cos 5
inner-vlan 101
outer-vlan 101
packet-size 256
profile traffic direction external
rate-step kbps 50000
Direction - Internal
ip sla 200
service-performance type ethernet dest-mac-addr 0000.0300.0301 interface GigabitEthernet 0/0/1 service instance 300
frequency iteration 1 delay 1
duration time 50
profile packet
inner-cos 5
outer-cos 5
inner-vlan 101
outer-vlan 101
packet-size 256
profile traffic direction internal
rate-step kbps 50000
Step 3

Configure loopback on SAT IP SLA configuration itself if the remote end is NCS 520.

Example:

 
ip sla 1
 service-performance type ethernet dest-mac-addr 0001.0001.0001 interface GigabitEthernet0/0/3 service instance 2
  loopback direction external
  profile packet
   inner-vlan 20
   outer-vlan 10
   src-mac-addr 0002.0002.0002
  duration time 5000
Step 4

Configure loopback on SAT IP SLA configuration itself, if remote end is NCS 520 or use ether-type as IPv4 or IPv6, if remote node is other than NCS520.

Step 5

Start the IP SLA session:

Example:

Router(config)# ip sla schedule [sla_id] start-time [hh:mm | hh:mm:ss | now | pending | random]

How to Configure IP SLA - Service Performance Testing

Configuring Ethernet Target Two-Way Color Blind Session

Perform the following steps to configure ethernet target color blind traffic generation.

SUMMARY STEPS

  1. enable
  2. configure terminal
  3. ip sla sla_id
  4. service-performance type ethernet dest-mac-addr dest-mac service instance
  5. aggregation | default | description | duration | exit | frequency | no | profile
  6. measurement-type direction {internal | external }
  7. default | exit | no | throughput | receive
  8. exit
  9. profile packet
  10. default | exit | inner-cos | inner-vlan | no | outer-cos | outer-vlan | packet-size | src-mac-addr
  11. exit
  12. profile traffic direction {external | internal }
  13. default or exit or no or rate step kbps | pps
  14. exit

DETAILED STEPS

  Command or Action Purpose
Step 1

enable

Example:

Device> enable

Enables privileged EXEC mode.

  • Enter your password if prompted.

Step 2

configure terminal

Example:

Device# configure terminal

Enters global configuration mode.

Step 3

ip sla sla_id

Example:

Device(config)# ip sla 100

Specifies the SLA ID to start the IP SLA session.

Step 4

service-performance type ethernet dest-mac-addr dest-mac service instance

Example:

Device(config-ip-sla))#service-performance type ethernet dest-mac-addr 0001.0001.0001 interface gigabitEthernet0/10 service instance 10

Specifies the service performance type as Ethernet and the destination MAC address in H.H.H format.

Specifies the target for the SLA session. The options is service instance.

Step 5

aggregation | default | description | duration | exit | frequency | no | profile

Example:

Device(config-ip-sla-service-performance)# duration time 60

Specifies the type of service performance. The options are:

  • aggregation - Represents the statistics aggregation.

  • default - Sets a command to its defaults.

  • description - Describes the operation.

  • duration - Sets the service performance duration configuration.

  • frequency - Represents the scheduled frequency. The options available are iteration and time. The range in seconds is from 20 to 65535.

  • profile - Specifies the service performance profile. If you use the packet or traffic options, go to Step 9 or Step 12, respectively.

Step 6

measurement-type direction {internal | external }

Example:

Device(config-ip-sla-service-performance)# measurement-type direction

Specifies the statistics to measure traffic. The options available are external or internal; the default option is internal.

Only external measurement-type direction is supported for 10G.

Step 7

default | exit | no | throughput | receive

Example:

Device(config-ip-sla-service-performance-measurement)# throughput

Specifies the measurement type based on the service performance is calculated. The options are:

  • default - Sets a command to its defaults.

  • throughput - Specifies the measurement such as average rate of successful frame delivery.

  • receive - Specifies the passive measurement mode.

Step 8

exit

Exits the measurement mode.

Step 9

profile packet

Example:

Device(config-ip-sla-service-performance)#profile packet

Specifies the packet profile. A packet profile defines the packets to be generated.

Step 10

default | exit | inner-cos | inner-vlan | no | outer-cos | outer-vlan | packet-size | src-mac-addr

Example:

Device(config-ip-sla-service-performance-packet)#src-mac-addr 4055.3989.7b56

Specifies the packet type. The options are:

  • default - Sets a command to its defaults.

  • inner-cos - Specifies the class of service (CoS) value for the inner VLAN tag of the interface from which the message will be sent.

  • inner-vlan - Specifies the VLAN ID for the inner vlan tag of the interface from which the message will be sent.

  • outer-cos - Specifies the CoS value that will be populated in the outer VLAN tag of the packet.

  • outer-vlan - Specifies the VLAN ID that will be populated in the outer VLAN tag of the packet.

  • packet-size - Specifies the packet size; the default size is 64 bytes. The supported packet sizes are 64 bytes,128 bytes, 256 bytes, 512 bytes, 1024 bytes, 1280 bytes, 1518 bytes, and 9216 bytes.

  • src-mac-addr - Specifies the source MAC address in H.H.H format.

Note 
Ensure that the value of the configured packet profile matches the target configuration of the session.
Step 11

exit

Example:

Device(config-ip-sla-service-performance-packet)# exit

Exits the packet mode.

Step 12

profile traffic direction {external | internal }

Example:

Device(config-ip-sla-service-performance)#profile traffic direction external

Specifies the direction of the profile traffic. The options are external and internal.

Note 
This command is required to configure the rate step kbps command.
Step 13

default or exit or no or rate step kbps | pps

Example:

Device(config-ip-sla-service-performance-traffic)#rate-step kbps 1000

Specifies the traffic type. The options are:

  • default - Sets a command to its defaults.

  • rate step kbps - Specifies the transmission rate in kbps. The rate-step range is from 1-10000000 (1 Kbps to 10 Gbps).

  • rate step pps - Specifies the transmission rate in pps. The rate-step range is from 1-1000000 (1 to 1000000 pps).

    Note 
    The command rate-step kbps | pps number is mandatory for traffic generation.
Step 14

exit

Exits the traffic mode.

Configuration Examples for Configuring Y.1564 to Generate and Measure Ethernet Traffic

This section shows sample configurations for traffic generation.

Example: Traffic Generation

This section shows sample configuration for traffic generation – target service instance. 

Direction - External
ip sla 200
service-performance type ethernet dest-mac-addr 0000.0300.0301 interface GigabitEthernet 0/0/1 service instance 300
frequency iteration 1 delay 1
duration time 50
profile packet
inner-cos 5
outer-cos 5
inner-vlan 101
outer-vlan 101
packet-size 256
profile traffic direction external
rate-step kbps 50000
Direction - Internal
ip sla 200
service-performance type ethernet dest-mac-addr 0000.0300.0301 interface GigabitEthernet 0/0/1 service instance 300
frequency iteration 1 delay 1
duration time 50
profile packet
inner-cos 5
outer-cos 5
inner-vlan 101
outer-vlan 101
packet-size 256
profile traffic direction internal
rate-step kbps 50000

Example: Two-Way Session

The following is a sample configuration for a two-way measurement session.

Two-way measurement mode: Direction - Internal


ip sla 12345
service-performance type ethernet dest-mac-addr 00ab.cdef.1234 interface TenGigabitEthernet0/0/4 service instance 1000
measurement-type direction internal 
receive
throughput
profile packet
outer-cos 2
outer-vlan 999
packet-size 1518
src-mac-addr 0012.3456.789a
profile traffic direction internal
rate-step kbps 10000 15000
duration time 100

Two-way measurement mode: Direction - External


ip sla 12345
service-performance type ethernet dest-mac-addr 00ab.cdef.1234 interface TenGigabitEthernet0/0/4 service instance 1000
measurement-type direction external 
receive
throughput
profile packet
outer-cos 2
outer-vlan 999
packet-size 1518
src-mac-addr 0012.3456.789a
profile traffic direction external
rate-step kbps 10000 15000

Example: Passive Measurement Mode

The following is a sample configuration for passive measurement session.

Direction - External


ip sla 200
service-performance type ethernet dest-mac-addr 0000.0300.0301 interface GigabitEthernet 0/0/11 service instance 300
measurement-type direction external
receive
profile packet
inner-cos 5
outer-cos 5
inner-vlan 101
outer-vlan 101
packet-size 256

Direction - Internal


ip sla 200
service-performance type ethernet dest-mac-addr 0000.0300.0301 interface GigabitEthernet 0/0/11 service instance 300
measurement-type direction internal
receive
profile packet
profile packet
inner-cos 5
outer-cos 5
inner-vlan 101
outer-vlan 101
packet-size 256

Example: Two-Way Measurement Mode

The following is a sample loopback configuration for a two-way measurement mode.

Direction - External:


ip sla 200
service-performance type ethernet dest-mac-addr 0000.0300.0301 interface GigabitEthernet 0/0/11 service instance 300
measurement-type direction external
receive
profile packet
inner-cos 5
outer-cos 5
inner-vlan 101
outer-vlan 101

Direction - Internal:


ip sla 200
service-performance type ethernet dest-mac-addr 0000.0300.0301 interface GigabitEthernet 0/0/11 service instance 300
measurement-type direction internal
receive
profile packet
profile packet
inner-cos 5
outer-cos 5
inner-vlan 101
outer-vlan 101

Additional References for IP SLA - Service Performance Testing

Related Documents

Related Topic

Document Title

Cisco IOS commands

Cisco IOS Master Command List, All Releases

Cisco IOS IP SLAs commands

Cisco IOS IP SLAs Command Reference

Standards and RFCs

Standard/RFC

Title

ITU-T Y.1564

Ethernet service activation test methodology

Technical Assistance

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