Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!ucsd!sdcsvax!ucsdhub!hp-sdd!hplabs!hp-ses!hpcuhb!hpcilzb!hpcea!hpldsla!mjoshi
From: mjoshi@hpldsla.HP.COM
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: LAN performance
Message-ID: <5790001@hpldsla.HP.COM>
Date: 23 Mar 89 01:48:38 GMT
Lines: 28


I am reviewing the performance of 802.3/Ethernet LANs, and the 
following questions arose:

Is there a UNIX based tool to measure the Load (in say, bits/sec) 
on the network at any given time. Although, I am able to compute the 
traffic factor for the artificial load generated by my applications, 
I am not able to assess the load factor or percentage of LAN bandwidth 
that is already being consumed by other systems on the LAN.           

Also does anyone have a performance curve for the distribution of 
throughput at the ethernet as well as TCP/IP level as the load varies, 
for a fixed message size? I found Cabrera (et al)'s article on 
User Process Communication Performance (IEEE Transactions on s/w Engg,
Vol. 14, No1, Jan 1988 very informative although the illustrated
curves give throughput v/s message size for fixed loads.

Has anyone evaluated Ethernet/802.3  cards (for Intel/Motorola 
architectures in the Dos/Unix/Xenix environments) like 3-COM, Interlan, 
Excelan or Western Digital in terms of data buffering, speed, memory
requirements, cost-effectiveness and so on. I would very much 
appreciate if someone has data to spare on this.

Manoj Joshi.

manoj@hpldas5

Telnet: 857-7099