[NNagain] A quick report from the WISPA conference

[Jack Haverty]

On 11/17/23 11:27, Dave Taht via Nnagain wrote:
> one of the things we really wished existed was a standardized way to
> test latency and throughput to routers. It would be super helpful if
> there was a standard in consumer routers that allowed users to both ping
>   and fetch 0kB fils from their routers, and also run download/upload
> tests.

Back when I was involved in operating a network, we tried to track 
latency and throughput by standard ping and related tests.  We 
discovered that, in addition to the network conditions, the results were 
often dependent on the particular equipment and software involved at the 
time.   Some companies treated ping traffic (e.g., anything directed to 
the "echo" port) as low priority since it was obviously (to them) less 
important than any other traffic.   Others treated such traffic as high 
priority - it made their results in review articles look better.

In another case we discovered one brand of desktop computer was achieved 
much higher throughputs over the net than similar products from other 
manufacturers.  It took some serious technical investigation but we 
eventually discovered that the high throughput was achieved by violating 
the Ethernet specification.   The offending vendor didn't follow the 
rules about timing.  But their test results looked much better than the 
competition.

IMHO the root of the problem is that you can not assume much about what 
any software and hardware are doing.  There are lots of specs, 
standards, and mandates in RFCs or even governmental rules and 
regulations.  But lacking any kind of testing or certification, it's 
difficult to tell if those "standards" are actually being followed. If 
someone, technical organization or government regulator, declares or 
legislates some protocol, algorithm, or behavior to be a required 
"standard", it should be accompanied by mechanisms and processes for 
testing to verify that the standard is implemented correctly and is 
actually used, and certification so that purchasers are informed.

Jack Haverty
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