Measuring performance of dynamic routing protocols

[amatorjnr]

I am trying to measure the performance of RIP, OSPF and EIGRP for a school project. I have configured routers on GNS3 and i can ping between them. I am however conflicted as to how to measure these metrics.

I'm using (convergence, latency and delay).

How do i do this. will it be efficient to use SLA for this or use i use an extended ping between routers.

for convergence, do i calculate the lost pings or whats the more efficient way to do this?

should i use the (min/avg/max) timers for pings as latency or there's a better way to do this.

Do i need to use wireshark to measure delay or there's a better way.

Any help will be appreciated

[MHM Cisco World]

Gns3 not like real network but for me when I do lab I use for coverage  ping with repeat 100-1000and see how much ping drop.

[M02@rt37]

Hello @amatorjnr,

Measuring the performance of routing protocols such as RIP, OSPF, and EIGRP involves analyzing various metrics such as convergence time, latency, and delay. Here are some ways you can measure these metrics:

-- Convergence time is the time taken by the network to update its routing tables after a topology change. You can measure the convergence time by introducing a topology change, such as disconnecting a link or shutting down a router, and then observing the time taken by the network to converge. One way to do this is to use debug commands or logging features provided by the routing protocol. For example, you can use the "debug ip routing" command in Cisco IOS to view routing updates and convergence events. Alternatively, you can use a tool like Wireshark to capture and analyze routing protocol packets to determine the convergence time.

-- Latency is the time taken by a packet to travel from one network device to another. You can measure latency by sending ICMP echo request packets between routers and analyzing the response times. One way to do this is to use the extended ping command in Cisco IOS, which allows you to specify the number of packets to send, the packet size, and other parameters. You can then analyze the ping output to determine the minimum, average, and maximum response times. Alternatively, you can use a tool like IPERF to generate traffic between routers and measure latency, jitter, and other network performance metrics.

--Delay is the time taken by a packet to traverse a network device, such as a router or switch. You can measure delay by capturing packet traces using a tool like Wireshark and analyzing the timestamps of packets as they pass through the network. Wireshark provides various statistics and graphs that can help you determine the delay introduced by each network device. You can also use tools like IPERF or Cisco IP SLA to generate traffic and measure delay, jitter, and other network performance metrics.

Measuring the performance of routing protocols involves a combination of techniques, including packet captures, debug commands, and specialized tools like IPERF or Cisco IP SLA. Each metric requires a different approach, and it's important to choose the right tool or method for the job.

[Joseph W. Doherty]

"I am trying to measure the performance of RIP, OSPF and EIGRP for a school project."

Like for a doctoral thesis? 

Prior question is only half joke, because trying to measure performance of dynamic routing protocols, so you can compare them, is actually probably might be used for part of a doctoral thesis.

I just spent the last couple of minutes, trying to find some Cisco info on adjusting EIGRP and/or OSPF convergence impacting values - couldn't find what I was looking for - but Cisco has (had?) some great documentation about how to "tune" EIGRP and/or OSPF.

One of the reasons why I was looking for such documentation, it would show many of the factors that can impact the "speed" of some IGMPs, this, though, specific to Cisco.  (I've also worked with other vendor implementations of, OSPF, where said vendors might provide their own "tuning" knobs, or none at all.)

(Basically, top tier vendors, at least with OSPF, found RFC "things", which can directly impact OSPF "performance", but which are not defined as "must/required" in RFC.  I.e. they truly improve something like OSPF working in some of the "undefined" aspects of the protocol.  Which is great, but such non-standard improvements can change over time [and have] and can sometimes cause compatibility issues when using a mixed network vendor environment.)

Your "project" is a very, very deep rabbit hole; impacted not only by the fundamental design of the various IGMPs, but by their particular implementation, by their particular configuration (of the protocol), by the particular topology of the network, by the particular configuration used for the particular topology, by the particular failure(s), etc. (yes, there's even more in that etc.)

If this is an assigned school project, I would ask who ever assigned it, for specific criteria for just what kind of comparison is being sought.