66th IETF Meeting Montreal IETF BMWG WLAN Switch & Mesh Benchmarking Jerry Perser

2 Where is Jerry? Jerry says hello, and is sorry he couldn’t be here in person He’s busy with a bit of applied WLAN switch benchmarking Tom A. will serve as ”virtual Jerry” Jerry in his usual position DUT Large Rack of Test Gear

3 Motivation and Background Enterprise WLANs highly IP-centric and switched WLAN switches and lightweight APs Layer 3/4 aware (sometimes even Layer-7 aware) Incorporates many IETF-defined functions: ARP caching and proxying, DHCP service, firewalling, IPsec, etc Considerable work in IETF in this area CAPWAP – WLAN switch protocols MANET – WLAN mesh protocols Equipment vendors would like to use the same benchmarking techniques as their customers, for measuring WLAN switch and mesh performance It’s all very ad-hoc today Test tool vendors would like to have the same approach to testing as service providers and equipment vendors

4 Scope of Proposed Work Extend existing router/switch RFCs and drafts to cover WLAN switches and meshes RFC 1242, RFC 2285, RFC 2544, RFC 2889, etc. Hash & stuffing draft Random MACs + wireless security = problems Extend for higher-layer functions of WLAN switches and meshes Add in wireless device specific requirements Include general WLAN switch data plane performance What does “throughput with zero loss” mean for wireless, which has error rates of and retransmissions? Add WLAN-specific terminology/methodology Roaming and scalability (support of CAPWAP) Multi-hop mesh performance, recovery (support of MANET)

5 What About IEEE T? IEEE T PAR limits scope to WLAN devices and networks; no mention of IPv4 or IPv6 WLAN switches have Ethernet interfaces, not WLAN switches do not contain conforming implementations of the PHY or MAC WLAN switches usually transport IP-encapsulated packets BMWG standardizes IP-level benchmark terminology & methodology Layer 3-7 functions outside the scope of normal 802 work BMWG has far more background in switching & routing benchmarking Can draw on a large experience base (RFC 1242 and 2285) CAPWAP and MANET are already IETF work items Makes sense to keep it all together

6 Next steps Start discussion on work proposals Solicit help Submit drafts Terminology Methodology Ensure no overlap with IEEE T Comments?